Azg, Armenia
Dec 25 2007
ARMENIA SHOULD MOVE INTO OFFENSIVE IN KARABAKH TALKS IN 2008 – PUNDIT
by Gohar Gevorgyan
"2008 will be more peaceful in terms of negotiations"
Talks on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict proved inefficient
in the outgoing year. The Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents’
meeting in St Petersburg in summer underlined the inefficiency of the
negotiations, said political expert Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan at the
Pastark [discussion] club yesterday [24 December]. He is certain that
Azerbaijan’s bellicose statements are based on a sharp increase in
its military spending and on its oil dollars, and Armenia’s behaviour
is the result of its complementary foreign policy.
"Our foreign policy should change with a new president, and Armenia
should move into an offensive position from a defensive one," the
political expert said, emphasizing that the defensive behaviour of
our country has come to a logical end.
Commenting on [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev’s approach, and
the statement he made after becoming president in 2003 that he was
abandoning the previous talks and starting everything from scratch,
Melik-Shahnazaryan said: "The time has come for Armenia to forget the
[previous] negotiations after electing a new president and take up
new, more offensive positions".
Melik-Shahnazaryan believes that our people can elect such a
president with national mentality who is able to both think about the
national interests and also present the Karabakh issue in the
abovementioned way.
"It is possible to find this national mentality in everyone to this
or that extent, except for [former Armenian President] Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, who during the whole course of his activities quite
convincingly proved and now points out that to him democracy and
human rights are more important than the interests of the nation, the
rights of the nation."
The political expert believes that an offensive policy does not mean
making bellicose statements the way Azerbaijan does, but putting
forth demands.
"For instance we have a right to demand that Artsakh [historical name
of Nagornyy Karabakh] be provided with a representative at the UN –
even without a right to vote. We should take into consideration that
the UN is an organization of united nations and not united states. We
are not using our ‘trump cards’ fully. Artsakh should be a side to
the conflict," the political expert said. He noted that all this is a
result of the complementarity of our foreign policy. However, sooner
or later, or more probably sooner than later, we will have to make a
choice.
The political expert said that we are in quite a favourable situation
for shifting to an offensive position: the international law allows
recognition of Artsakh’s independence; we have a combat-ready army,
which defends the borders; there are precedents [in the world].
Melik-Shahnazaryan predicts that the year 2008 will be more peaceful
in terms of negotiations and a [resumption] of hostilities is less
likely because of two reasons: first of all, there is a force majeur
situation in the region. Second, no serious country is interested in
a war between us and Azerbaijan. The political expert believes that
if a war breaks out, it will be swiftly stopped by foreign forces or
it will end in Azerbaijan’s defeat.
[translated]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
