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NKR: How To Return Karabakh?

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  • NKR: How To Return Karabakh?

    HOW TO RETURN KARABAKH?

    Azat Artsakh - Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
    20 June 05

    For over 17 years the Azerbaijani politicians and political scientists,
    journalists, the military and defenders of rights have been racking
    their brains over this question. At different times power was taken
    away from five leaders of Soviet and post-Soviet Azerbaijan - Kyamran
    Baghirov, Abdurrahman Vezirov, Ayaz Mutalibov, Yaghub Mamedov and
    Abulfaz Elchibey - for failure in solving the Karabakh issue by Baku's
    scenario. Heydar Aliev left this world and joined Kyamran Baghirov and
    Abulfaz Elchibey without undoing the Karabakh knot. Now Aliev Junior
    has taken up the job, promising his fellow countrymen, like his
    predecessors, to return Karabakh to Azerbaijan. Each of these leaders
    of Azerbaijan had their own plan of getting over the `insurgent'
    people of Karabakh. Under Kyamran Baghirov they tried to scare us
    through assaults of the Azerbaijani mob in Askeran, massacres were
    perpetrated in Sumgait, our compatriots were forced to leave
    Shushi. These did not work. Abdurrahman Vezirov, who succeeded him,
    intended to assuage the Armenians (as well as the Azerbaijanis)
    through political clownery until a convenient occasion occurred to
    take revenge on the people of Karabakh. However, the Azerbaijanis, and
    especially the Popular Front of Azerbaijan were not in the way of
    joking. The Azerbaijanis would have hung Abdurahman Vezirov at the
    home of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan if
    the former USSR troops did not save him. After the famous events in
    Baku in January 1990 Ayaz Mutalibov, who came to replace Vezirov,
    looking quite respectable, not only did not apologize to more than 250
    thousand Armenians for having displaced them through medieval methods,
    but also persuaded Mikhail Gorbachov to hold the military operation
    `Koltso' in the Autonomous Region of Nagorno Karabakh to force out the
    Armenian population from Nagorno Karabakh. However, the quick
    succession of events in Soviet Union in agony prevented the
    realization of this idea Yaghub Mamedov who assumed the duties of the
    leader of Azerbaijan for a short period after the dissolution of the
    USSR and resignation of Ayaz Mutalibov again `failed' in the Karabakh
    issue, signing armistice with the president of Armenia then Levon
    Ter-Petrossian in Tehran a day before the offensive of Shushi. Abulfaz
    Elchibey adopted a military method of solving the issue. He was
    mistaken in his estimations as well. Then Heydar Aliev took up the
    work of saving the nation through military ways. As a result
    Azerbaijan lost several more regions, adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh.
    The `Father of the Nation' had to alter his tactics manipulating the
    factor of oil and hoping to push the third countries to put military,
    political and economic pressure on Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. Once
    again failure. Finally, Ilham Aliev came to power. He seems to have
    decided not to occupy with the Karabakh issue at all and leave the
    whole burden of settlement with the international mediators. This
    tactics has not produced sought-after results either. Meanwhile, after
    the dissolution of the USSR various NGOs and human rights
    organizations appeared in Azerbaijan which no more believe the
    government could solve the Karabakh issue and propose their own
    prescriptions. The prescriptions come to any liking, ranging from
    apparently `constructive' (by Azerbaijani standards, of course) to
    naive and even exotic ones. The head of the Azerbaijani National
    Committee of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Arzu Abdulayeva has been
    raving about the Aland model of resolution for many years now. The
    Aland Islands where ethnic Swedish people live belong to
    Finland. Aland people have a president, a parliament and a prime
    minister, that is to say, also a government. They all meet under their
    own flag. Besides, the Aland Islands are considered a completely
    demilitarized zone, which supposes the absence of military service. If
    I am not mistaken, in 1993 the NKR delegation visited the Aland
    Islands for studying the experience of reconciliation and co-existence
    of nations. It is notable that the speak er of the parliament of NKR
    then Karen Baburian who headed our delegation, was asked what his
    attitude toward the Aland model was. He unbuttoned his collar
    jokingly: `Karabakh is absolutely for it, but on condition that it is
    part of Finland and borders with friendly Sweden.' Thereby Karen
    Baburian let the international organizers of the visit know that Asian
    Azerbaijan infected with the militaristic germ is far from being
    civilized European Finland. However, Arzu Abdulayeva, apparently, has
    a different opinion. `We need to shift from abstract, non-concrete
    judgements about the independence of Karabakh and the territorial
    integrity of Azerbaijan to the discussion of opportunities of the
    South Caucasians to leave at peace, like the Europeans, securing
    economic, political and civil liberties,' she writes in one of her
    newspaper articles. Therefore, Arzu khanum goes on, it is worth
    considering whether the model of Aland Islands can serve as a ground
    for national (i.e. Azerbaijani - A.G.) agreement. Any government
    would have to take it into consideration. `Instead of judging about
    some highest form of sovereignty (i.e. Azerbaijani - A.G.) the
    authorities will have to recognize that our people accept this model,'
    concludes Arzu Abdulayeva. Is this naive? Certainly. It is naive
    because Arzu Abdulayeva presents the desirable for the real. Or she
    lies consciously when she states that the frenzy of nationalism in
    Azerbaijan has gone, and during the years of the cease-fire the
    Armenians of Karabakh have become convinced that the traditional
    standpoint `unification with Armenia or independence' is fruitless.

    Whereas, it is not possible to build real peace based on a lie. The
    representative of the political party `New Greens', political
    scientist Oktay Sadekhzade presented an absolutely `constructive'
    model of resolution for Azerbaijan last year. Fairly insisting that
    further development of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the fates of the two
    nations depend on the resolution of the conflict, Oktay Sadekhzade
    proposes a three-stage plan of resolution of the conflict. In the
    first stage the liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories
    except Nagorno Karabakh and Lachin, the return of the displaced
    persons and stationing of international peacemaking forces in the
    region is proposed. The ratio of the international peacemaking forces
    stationed in the conflict area must be the following: USA 25 %, France
    25%, Russia 25 % and Turkey 25 %. According to the plan of the
    Azerbaijani `Green', the second stage should be launched only after a
    public opinion poll is conducted in Azerbaijan and Armenia. In this
    stage the status of Nagorno Karabakh will be determined. Oktay
    Sadekhzade provides a vertical - horizontal subordination of our
    region to official Baku, which is difficult to understand. For the
    Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh he plans double citizenship of
    Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. For this aim an exclusive amendment
    is to be made to the Constitution of Azerbaijan. At the end of the
    second stage Baku and Yerevan are to sign an intergovernmental
    agreement by which the Lachin corridor will be rented by Armenia for
    99 years and the Meghri corridor will be rented by Azerbaijan for 99
    years. And finally, in the third stage, election to the local
    governments will be held in Nagorno Karabakh, in which `both
    communities' of the republic will take part. The republic will not
    have a president, and NKR will be a parliamentary republic within
    Azerbaijan. In other words, Oktay Sadekhzade proposes a rather long
    process of returning the Karabakh Armenians to Azerbaijan and in the
    future they will be free to leave the Armenian land for whatever place
    they wish. Another project on resolution was presented to the
    Azerbaijani public by one of the independent newspapers of Baku.

    According to their project, the territory of the former Autonomous
    Region of Nagorno Karabakh should be given the status of Free Economic
    Zone for 50 years. The zone should be run by the board of directors
    set up from the representatives of Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan,
    Armenia, as well as the members of the OSCE Minsk Group. The OSCE
    Minsk Group will act as guarantor of the new status of Nagorno
    Karabakh. The project provides for several other `privileges' as well,
    but the passports of the NKR residents will be Azerbaijani with an
    appendix of `Free Economic Zone'. The official languages of the Free
    Economic Zone will be Armenian and Azerbaijani. The procedure of
    legalization of the new status of NK will be carried out in parallel
    with `the liberation of the occupied areas of Azerbaijan'. Well, we
    have a more `delicate' plan of returning Karabakh to Azerbaijan, with
    all the famous consequences for the Armenians of Karabakh, i.e. you
    can leave your motherland for whatever place you like. Here are the
    fresh ideas about the ways of resolution of the Karabakh issue, which
    fully correspond to the modern trends. One of the authors of these is
    the executive director of the National Centre for Strategic Research,
    Farhad Mamedov. According to him, only democratic and powerful
    Azerbaijan is able to make the West return Karabakh. One has to admit
    that this is already serious. This is what we the Armenians say,
    seeking for the international recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh
    Republic. For this aim Farhad Mamedov points out the necessity for
    holding fair parliamentary election in Azerbaijan this November. We
    seek for the same in Karabakh. But this is not the real essence. In
    all the models of resolution of the Karabakh conflict mentioned above
    and many others not mentioned here there is not a single word about
    the right of the NK Armenians for self-determination. That is to say,
    the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is completely denied. Then the question
    occurs: `How is it possible to solve a problem without recognizing
    it?' Therefore, the Azerbaijani inventors of various formulae to
    return Nagorno Karabakh to the constitutional environment of
    Azerbaijan and other `kind intentions' will remain kind intentions,
    not more. Although, among our neighbours there are such who doubt that
    the Azerbaijani government wants to return Karabakh. Among them is the
    well-known political scientist from Azerbaijan, Rasim Aghaev.

    According to him, Azerbaijan had quite a lot of time to Azerbaijanize
    Karabakh (about 70 years of the Soviet rule). `It was the only
    reliable way of eliminating the so-called Karabakh issue,' he states
    in one of his articles on the Karabakh conflict. Long live Rasim-Bey!
    At least you are frank. Although, on the other hand, the leadership of
    Soviet Azerbaijan was guided by the principle of Rasim Aghaev for 70
    years, which gave rise to the Karabakh issue as it is now. Anyway, how
    could the Azerbaijanis return Karabakh¦?

    ALEXANDER GRIGORIAN.
    20-06-2005
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