NEW THESIS FOR NONSENSE
Thursday, 26 September 2013 11:05
Azerbaijan is powerless to prevent the arrival of foreign citizens
in Artsakh
This week, a Californian delegation, comprising representatives of
the legislative and executive bodies of the largest American state,
as well as the district and municipality of Los Angeles, has arrived
in theNagornoKarabakhRepublic. Such visits, which are important for
the NKR in terms of both the development of bilateral relations and
prospects of the international recognition of the Republic,
become to a certain extent usual and even ordinary for the people
of Artsakh. It is, first of all, because they reflect the regular
and objective course of development of the proper NKR and the trends
of the world processes on the Karabakh issue. Another thing is that
Azerbaijan doesn’t wish to understand and accept this fact, and the
Azerbaijani authorities cannot get used to the increasing interest
of the international community towards the public-political, in
particular, democratic development processes in Artsakh. This prompts
political figures and political scientists, as well as representatives
of the mass media and public organizations to pay familiarizing and
other kinds of visits to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.
It should be noted that even before the arrival of the delegation of
the State of California in the NKR, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
of Azerbaijan reacted nervously to the possible visit of American
political figures to Artsakh. According to the established tradition,
a representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called the
visit illegal and threatened that “the people who illegally visited
the occupied territories of the country, or didn’t obtain permission
for it, will be included in the list of undesirable persons.” To help
the brothers in blood rushed also the union of the Turkic Diaspora in
the United States, which called on the tribesmen to join the campaign
against the California delegation’s visit to Nagorno Karabakh.
Unfortunately for the Azerbaijani authorities, those days, Canadian
parliamentarians also paid a visit to Artsakh and met with the NKR
authorities, due to which the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry took up
the investigation of this fact and gave the Embassy of Azerbaijan to
Canada corresponding instructions. It seems that the Foreign Ministry
of Azerbaijan will not be bored, because the external contacts of
the NKR will rise with time, and, accordingly, the number of people
visiting the NKR will increase.
But, we are not talking about it, or rather, not so much about it.
Getting acquainted with the comments of the officials of Azerbaijan,
it is easy to guess that its authorities still live with the illusions
of Nagorno Karabakh’s belonging to them. One gets the impression that
they are in a kind of virtual world, oblivious to the reality and the
objective development of the situation related to Nagorno-Karabakh. It
seems that even the fact that the phrase “the right of peoples to
self-determination” as a principle for the settlement of the conflict
has been long included in the vocabulary of the negotiations running
under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group has not sobered up the
authorities of Baku. They continue to think in terms of the 80s of
the Soviet period, refusing to notice that the train has long gone.
However, they may notice, but act in defiance of this, inventing,
in particular, the right to a peculiar “patent” to foreign citizens
for entering Artsakh.
It sometimes brings to curious things. A representative of the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, in the usual political ecstasy,
has recently stated that the Azerbaijani side continues to receive
inquiries from people for getting a permit to visit Nagorno Karabakh,
not to get to the list of undesirable persons. The meaning of the
statement is clear – to give greater importance to its nonsense. That
is, “to legitimize” it. After all, it is so obvious that such, so
to speak, permit is a useless scrap of paper and is not even worth
a penny. Issuance of permits for the entry of foreign citizens to
Nagorno Karabakh is exclusively the sovereign right of the NKR,
and Azerbaijan is just unable to ban foreigners to visit our Republic.
Apparently, realizing their inability in trying to prevent the arrival
of foreign citizens in the NKR, the Azerbaijani authorities invented
a new thesis for their nonsense – that most people visit Artsakh
as a result of deceit. This “explanation” was also brought in the
comments of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry in connection with the
visit of the U.S. delegation to Nagorno-Karabakh. But, it is foolish
to believe that the thousands of people who have visited the NKR are
so naive to succumb easily to the deceit. And what is deceit in the
Azerbaijani interpretation? You know, the people were not forcibly
dragged to Artsakh. And what can you say about their assurances of
their intention to arrive in the NKR again? As for the delegation
of the State of California, during the meeting at the NKR Parliament
the American guests admitted that prior to visiting Nagorno-Karabakh
they had familiarized with its history. Moreover, some of them even
drew parallels between the struggle of their people and the people
of Nagorno Karabakh for freedom and independence. The delegation
members expressed hope for further consolidation and development of
relations between Artsakh and the United States. We believe that
this fact is enough to make a conclusion about the failure of the
Azerbaijani thesis of “wayward visitors”.
The visit of the delegation of the State of California should be
considered only and only in the context of development of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic as an independent state. As you know, earlier,
a number of American states adopted resolutions calling upon the U.S.
President and Congress for supporting the self-determination and
democratic independence of the NKR. And this process seems to go
forward at a steady gait.
So, deceiving its own audience, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan
is actually self-deceiving. But, as the saying goes, it is their
own problem.
Leonid MARTIROSSIAN
Editor-in-Chief of Azat Artsakh newspaper
From: A. Papazian
http://artsakhtert.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1194:-new-thesis-for-nonsense&catid=3:all&Itemid=4