THE PEOPLE OF KARABAGH MUST NOT BE DENIED THE RIGHT OF SELF-DETERMINATION
Thursday, 26 July 2012 00:00
Odette Bazil, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
(Co-Founder and Executive Secretary
British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group)
Complaints have been presented by the Azeri Government to the British
Government for allowing an Address to be delivered by the Speaker of
the Karabagh Parliament, the Rt Hon Ashot Ghulyan MP, on the occasion
of the 20th AGM of the British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group
(BAAPPG) on Monday 11th June 2012, in Committee Room One of the House
of Lords, British Parliament.
The invitation to the Speaker had been issued by the BAAPPG, together
with an application for the Speaker’s Visa to the British Embassy
in Yerevan Armenia and the event had been organised to include it
in its 20th AGM, as part of the celebrations to mark the Twentieth
Anniversary of the Founding of the Group.
It was the two questions asked by Lord Lea who – although not being
a Member of the Armenian Group, but allowed to attend the meeting,
representing the British-Turkish All-Party Parliamentary Group – that
created the unexpected opportunity for both the Karabagh Speaker and
the Armenian Ambassador Mrs Karineh Kazinian to express their opinions
and expose the facts about the conflict in Karabagh.
Karineh Kazinian
It is dubious and illogical that the British Government has – according
to the Azeri Paper – rejected and refuted the recognition of Karabagh’s
independence and existence when in 2009 the Rt Hon Baroness Symons,
Speaker of the House of Lords and representing the British Government,
herself was attempting to create the British-Karabagh All-Party
Parliamentary Group, confirming and recognising by her actions, the
very existence and independence of Karabagh, as no Parliamentary Group
can be created without it’s object and subject being in existence
and being independent.
It would be so just and commendable if the British Government, which
has lately declared and adopted the democratic right and process
of “voting for self- determination” by the British inhabitants of
the Falkland Islands, would extend the same courtesy and right of
“voting for self-determination” also to the people of Karabagh,
who find themselves in exactly the same situation as our valiant and
courageous British compatriots in the Falkland Islands.
Twenty years ago when the BAAPPG was founded, it was done with the hope
and conviction that the British Government and its Parliamentarians
in both Houses of the Palace of Westminster, would apply democracy,
fairness, justice and righteousness to all of their dealings with
their Guest Countries, [elizabeth_symons_t.jpg]
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean
and even with Groups who are representing countries which, although
maybe are not rich in natural resources, but are rich in millennia-old
culture and the strategic and geographic location of which – if
endangered and threatened – can affect every country of the South
Caucasus Region, the International Community at large, and can even
jeopardize the safe delivery of those natural resources to their
destinations.
According to the Speaker of Karabagh, the Rt Hon Ashot Ghulyan MP,
“The people of Karabagh are asking for and deserve the right of voting
for self-determination and the right of Independence, of living
in Freedom, Peace and harmony with all the peoples on this earth,
especially with their immediate neighbours with whom they share long
borders and seventy years of good neighbourly relations while at
peace with each other”.
It is also a subject of deep sorrow and worries, that during the past
year, and all the more so visible during the last three months, the
Azeri government is attacking at random and sporadically the Karabagh
borders (even infiltrating deep into Armenian villages), killing
at random and retreating, taking their dead soldiers with them and
producing it to the International Community as an act of aggression
from the Karabagh side. The Karabagh Speaker reiterated that Karabagh
has no wish for the resumption of hostilities, is not seeking military
solutions and believes that this complex situation can be solved ONLY
by means of discussions, negotiations, compromises and Peace.
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