Institute for War and Peace Reporting IWPR, UK
No. 559
Sept 17 2010
WATER COMPLICATES KARABAKH PEACE TALKS
Armenians fear losing important source of water in negotiations over
future of the territory.
By Karine Ohanyan
The Armenian residents of the town they call Karvachar boast of the
quality and quantity of their water.
`We have the most delicious and cleanest water. It does not need
filtering. You can drink it straight from the river. Apart from this,
in Karvachar, unlike in many regions and towns of Karabakh, the water
comes round-the-clock,’ said Alexander Kananyan, who has lived in the
town for nine years.
And their water is valued beyond the town. Nagorny Karabakh, a state
carved out of Soviet Azerbaijan by local Armenians, relies on this
region for more than 80 per cent of its drinking supply.
The trouble, however, is that Karvachar has another name: Kelbajar, by
which it is known to ethnic Azeris, as well as on maps of the region
from Soviet times and before. Unlike most of Karabakh, the town did
not form part of the Autonomous Region of Nagorny Karabakh within
Soviet Azerbaijan, and that means it is treated separately in peace
talks currently going on.
Therefore, experts say that if Baku gets its way, the town will be
returned to its control whatever the fate of Karabakh, which has
declared independence but not been recognised as an independent state
by any members of the United Nations.
“The peace deal currently under discussion, like almost all others,
envisages the return of almost all the seven Azerbaijani regions which
are now wholly or partially under Armenian military control in
exchange for some kind of ‘interim international status’ for Nagorny
Karabakh itself and the promise of a popular vote in the future on its
final status,’ said Thomas de Waal, an expert on Caucasus issues at
the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.
`There will be a special status for Lachin, which is the land bridge
between Armenia and Nagorny Karabakh and it is anticipated that
Kelbajar, the largest Azerbaijan region under Armenian control, which
is strategically situated between Armenia and Nagorny Karabakh, will
be handed back later than the other provinces.’
But Karabakh Armenians insist even that is unacceptable. Leaving aside
the fact that under its constitution, the republic claims all
territory that it currently controls, not just the territory of the
Soviet-era Autonomous Region, they see the district between Karabakh
and Armenia as crucial to their security.
`The territory of Karabakh within the administrative border of the
Autonomous Region is extremely vulnerable from the point of view of
securing its water resources. The lion’s share of water resources in
the former Autonomous Region has its origin outside of its
administrative limits. The rivers Terter and Khachen, which start
within the Karvachar region, bring in 83.4 per cent of the yearly
average of Karabakh’s main water supply,’ said David Babayan, who has
studied water issues in Karabakh for several years.
`Today, Nagorny Karabakh is in a position to almost entirely provide
for its own environmental security and its water resources, and in
this context the Karvachar region plays a key role… Therefore, if we
lose this region the water security of Karabakh would be under serious
threat.’
Most of the present-day residents of the town and its neighbouring
region are ethnic Armenians who fled areas currently controlled by
Azeri troops during the Karabakh war, which ended with a ceasefire in
1994 but which has not been resolved.
Peace talks are chaired by France, Russia and the United States, who
make up the so-called Minsk Group, but have not moved forward
significantly in the face of irreconcilable differences between the
two sides.
Azerbaijan insists on regaining control of the territory it lost but
local residents like Marianna Hovsepyan, who moved to the town from
Sumgait, the scene of three days of anti-Armenian riots in 1988 that
marked the start of major bloodshed between the two ethnic
communities, are adamant they would never allow that to happen.
`How could you even consider it,’ she asked. `We with difficulty built
here a second house, got our lives together, and now it’s not clear
what’s waiting for us. This will never happen. Even when Karabakh
president Bako Sahakyan came to Karvachar, he said, `As long as
Karabakh exists and I want to assure you all that it will always
exist, Karvachar will be part of it.”
Local residents well understand the importance of their town to the
future of the whole South Caucasus.
`Of course, the region has a strategic significance, because water is
an important resource of the future, and not just of the present day.
In worsening environmental conditions in the future, it will be a
necessary and expensive resource,’ said Alexander Kananyan, a
36-year-old a local resident.
`And of course, I’m not even talking about the military-strategic
significance of the Karvachar region. This it the highest and most
invulnerable part of Karabakh, and as a result whoever owns it, owns
all of Karabakh.’
Karine Ohanyan is a freelance journalist in Stepanakert.
From: A. Papazian