NO SERIOUS PROGRESS EXPECTED ON KARABAGH ISSUE IN NEAR FUTURE
Yerkir.am
June 15, 2007
Kiro Manoyan, the director of the ARF Bureau’s Hay Dat and Political
Affairs Office, says the last talks on Karabagh settlement showed
that no serious progress will be achieved in the negotiations for at
least some time. This can be explained by political developments.
"Negotiations show that the mediators’ optimism is not very
realistic because Azerbaijan has a tendency of stepping back from
arrangements achieve during the negotiations," Kiro Manoyan said
during the discussion of the Karabagh issue with ex-Prime Minister
Hrant Bagratian in "Hayeli" (Mirror) Club. Manoyan added that the
international community is not very interested in the Artsakh issue
because it has many other things to do: much more attention will
be paid to the presidential elections in USA in November. The last
meeting of the two presidents also shows that no fast solution is
possible. This is why we should use the time to concentrate on issues
we did not pay enough attention to.
Manoyan stressed the issue of repopulation of the territories
through a government-funded program, changing the format of the
negotiations. After the presidential elections in Armenia and
Azerbaijan there will be no point in starting the talks from scratch.
It should be made clear for Azerbaijan that if it does not use
this opportunity it will appear in a new situation whereby direct
negotiations with Nagorno Karabagh will be necessary. Presidential
elections will be held in Karabagh and the new Karabagh president
might raise the issue of direct participation in the negotiations.
"This process cannot go on forever. It is clear for us that first of
all the issue of Nagorno Karabagh’s status must be clarified. All other
issues are secondary," Manoyan said. The logic of the negotiations
is to finalize the issue of the status without clarifying the issue
on the liberated territories.
Hrant Bagratian believes the situation is getting worse. The
step-by-step option was discussed in 1997, it is still on the
table today. However, in 1997 the issue was about the return of 5
territories, meanwhile, today it is about the return of 7 territories.
Kiro Manoyan objected to Bagratian’s position noting that the principle
of self-determination of the Nagorno Karabagh people that is accepted
today through the negotiations was not accepted in 1997.
Commenting on the issue of repopulation of the liberated territories
Manoyan reminded that back in 2003 the ARF tried to repopulate these
territories with government funding and pan-Armenian assistance.
An agreement was reached among representatives of the Church, national
parties and charity organizations whereby they were planning to meet
in Echmiadzin to sign a cooperation agreement. However, this did
not take place due to some reasons. Manoyan still believes serious
measures must be undertaken in this direction.
International organizations in their turn are hindering this
process. They call on us to wait until the conflict is settled. Manoyan
says people were dissatisfied with the repopulation efforts because
some people who were in charge of this process used it for their
personal benefit.
"We saw what happened as a result of this. We voiced our protest
several times. We even nominated our candidate to coordinate these
works. The officer in charge of the process was replaced but our
candidate was not appointed."
When the Constitution of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic was drafted the
ARF proposed that these territories are defined in the constitution
as territories of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic and not as liberated
territories.
However, this proposal was not fully accepted. As a result, it was
stated in the constitution that these territories will be controlled
by Karabagh until the final status is determined. Manoyan believes
the concept of ‘liberated territories’ should not be differentiated
from the territories of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic.
We have lost something in terms of propaganda diplomacy due to both
our state’s and Azerbaijan’s initiatives. Azerbaijan was trying
to transfer this issue to other international arenas, but did not
succeed in this. Now it is time to be more cautious not to repeat
the mistakes of the past. Repopulation of the liberated territories
is the most important task in this context. This was the only issue
on which the debaters’ opinions coincided.