AGENDA ISSUES FOR ARMENIA
Lilit Poghosyan
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 02, 2008
Armenia
What will be Armenia’s counter-argument to the pre-attack tactics
successfully pushed forward by the Azeris in the summer session of
the Council of Europe? ARTAK DAVTYAN, member of the NA "Republican"
faction, gives answers to our questions.
"I have to state with regret that we, for the successive time, have
found ourselves in the role of contradictors. We have to respond to the
steps of Azerbaijan which, by ‘permission’ or silent consent of the
international community, blackmails us, speculating the issue of the
‘occupied’ territories. And this happens in a situation when we have
a great number of unused potentials and steps we haven’t undertaken
so far.
With its propaganda mixed with lie, Azerbaijan has actually distorted
the whole history of the Karabakh conflict. I think it is first of all
necessary to clearly recompose that period of history and introduce
it in all the international forums with specific facts and supported
arguments. Our delegations should attend those forums ‘armed’ with a
comprehensive package of relevant facts and arguments to be able to
contradict the anti-propaganda of the Azeris in a timely and effective
manner. This is the first thing to say.
The second important argument is the continuing blockade of Karabakh
and Armenia. We know well that the blockade by the Azerbaijani side
began back in the Soviet times and later acquired a periodic nature. We
know that there were entire troop trains disappearing in the territory
of Azerbaijan during the Soviet years, and after the collapse of the
USSR, no single carriage entered the territory of Armenia.
It is simply unclear why and how the same Council of Europe tolerates
keeping Armenia’s border close by the two CoE Member States –
Azerbaijan and Turkey."
"It is actually a hostile act against our country, a manifestation
of an undeclared war."
"Certainly. Moreover, I repeat that the blockade began much
earlier than the speculations over the issue of the ‘occupied
territories’. This too, is a very important argument that our Foreign
Ministry, the delegations representing Armenia in the international
tribunals and, why not, the Armenian organizations operating in the
Diaspora should introduce to the international community in a clear
and substantiated manner.
Especially considering that the Azeri delegations never miss the
occasion for raising the issue of the ‘occupied territories’ from
the international tribunals.
The fact that the creation of the security zone around Artsakh was
caused by the 100 percent encirclement of Nagorno Karabakh is no
less important. But for that zone, the events which occurred in
Uganda-Rwanda in the 1990’s would have been repeated in Artsakh;
the NKR population would have been annihilated. If nothing else had
happened, the people would have been simply reduced to starvation. The
only salvation and the only way out of this situation was the creation
of the security zone. Unfortunately, our diplomacy won’t raise this
issue either.
I am sure that the adoption of a resolution condemning Armenia’s
encirclement by Azerbaijan and Turkey should be one of the most
important if not the main trend of our foreign policy, no matter
whether such resolution will be passed by the United Nations, the
Council of Europe or the OSCE Assembly.
Suffice it to say that 80 percent of the freight transportation is
carried out via the Azerbaijani railroad; just imagine what tremendous
impact the halting of the process might have produced on Armenia’s
economy.
I think that the Government, on behalf of the Ministry of Economics
and the Statistic Service, also has serious things to do in this
respect. They should set a clear-cut task to estimate the material
damage caused to us as a result of the blockade. Considering that
Turkey and Azerbaijan are members not only of the Council of Europe
but also the World Trade Organization, it is required to submit a
claim to the International Court for the compensation of the damage.
I think this should also become an agenda issue for us.
To be continued