DEPLOYMENT OF PEACEKEEPERS IS EQUAL TO THE LOSS OF KARABAKH
Nano Arghutyan
Lragir.am
13:05:02 – 23/10/2008
The first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan thinks the Karabakh
settlement has stepped into a deciding phase, and the issue will be
resolved within the upcoming 2-3 months. Levon Ter-Petrosyan presented
the proposal offered by the mediators, one of the disputable points of
which is the issue of the territories around former Nagorno-Karabakh
Autonomous Region (NKAR).
The Armenian government did not deny having agreed to that, confirming
that Armenia will continue to negotiate the principles of Madrid.
The territories have become a hindrance to the resolution. And there
are several highly important reasons the most insignificant of which is
perhaps the settlement of the Karabakh problem. And the most important
one, of course, is the small section of the Karabakh-Iranian border
which is now defended by the Karabakh force.
Whose area of influence the entire South Caucasus will be depends
on whose troops will be deployed at this section. So far no troops
have been deployed in this area because the Minsk Group co-chairs,
the United States, Russia and France, could not reach agreement on
whose force should be deployed there. It is remembered that several
years ago the OSCE sent a planning group to Karabakh which was
supposed to study the site for ensuing deployment of peacekeepers. On
the same day the former (and perhaps present) representative of the
Russian president for the Karabakh issue Vladimir Kazimirov, who had
a trip to the area of security and even held an interview about the
deployment of peacekeepers. At that time no agreement was reached,
and obviously no agreement will be reached now. And now each side
will hold separate talks with Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The "intrigue" of the situation is that these territories which are
now part of NKR are in an unofficial area of influence of Armenia,
however, by international documents, they belong to Azerbaijan. In
other words, for the deployment of troops the agreement of both
Azerbaijan and Armenia is needed. Baku has already stated to disagree
to the deployment of any troops in their territories although
obviously these are just words. In reality, however, Aliyev dreams
of anyone’s troops to separate former NKAR which is usually referred
to as Karabakh from the rest of the territories, finally solving
this disputable issue. And afterwards it will be a matter of time
to solve the issue of "Karabakh" itself. Here no force is needed –
block the road for a couple of days and that’s it.
Therefore, it is not important to Azerbaijan whose troops will
be standing at the border of the former NKAR and the rest of
Karabakh. Most importantly, they want to rid of the bugbear called
the "seven territories around Karabakh". In this situation, it is
not clear what importance the "nationality" of the peacekeeping force
has to Armenia. No matter what uniforms they wear, they will deprive
Armenia of the most important factor of security.
Unfortunately, many people in Armenia do not acknowledge the
importance of this factor. In "political" conversations and even
negotiations these territories are handled as a trump card, and
there is nothing terrible about losing it. Many even did not bother
to visit those territories, let alone building in their development
and settlement. Moreover, when in 2000 the OSCE sent a monitoring
group at the request of Azerbaijan, the Armenian government started
to swear with such ardor that those territories are not settled as
if those territories were unreal and existed only on maps.
Meanwhile, after the division into Mountainous and Lowland Karabakh in
1923 these territories were not included in the Autonomous Region of
Nagorno-Karabakh, were settled by Azerbaijan and became a wedge tapped
between NKAR populated with Armenians and Armenia. After ousting the
Azerbaijani force from these territories Armenia and Karabakh got a
long border.
The territory of NKAR was 4.4 thousand square kilometers, the
population was 157.2 thousand (1998). Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was
proclaimed on September 2, 1991 in the territory of NKAR and the region
of Shahumyan. Territory 12, 047 square kilometers, population 144
thousand (2007). The territory of NKR was divided into 7 administrative
territories: Askeran, Hadrut, Martakert, Martuni, Shushi, Shahumyan and
Kashatagh. In December 1993 the region of Kashatagh, NKR, was formed
in the territory of the region of Lachin with the administrative
center of Lachin, which was later renamed Berdzor.
The territories around former NKAR, the parts where there are
communications are now populated. Most densely populated regions are
Kashatagh (former Lachin) and Shahumyan (former Kelbadjar). As of 2007,
about 9 thousand people lived in the region of Kashatagh. In the region
of Shahumyan the people of the former region of Shahumyan, Azerbaijan,
live now. Annually 130-150 families settle here with assistance from
the government. An annual 3 million dollars is invested in settlement.