Dashnaktsutiun: Armenia should change its domestic policy to reach progress on Karabakh
24.07.2010,
00:57
Armenia will never make concessions for settling the Karabakh conflict, but the country should change its domestic policy to reach progress.
YEREVAN, July 23. /ARKA/. Armenia will never make concessions for settling the Karabakh conflict, but the country should change its domestic policy to reach progress, Vahan Hovhanisyan, head of Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dahsnaktsutiun’s faction in the Armenian National Assembly, said at a news conference on Friday.
“It is clear hat Armenia doesn’t pursue a senseless policy of concessions,” he said. “It means that a clear answer should be given to Ter-Petrosyan and his loyalists, who keep speaking about concessions on Karabakh, as 15 years ago.”
The lawmaker said that yet in 1991 Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the then president, expressed such sentiments.
Armenian and Karabakhi armies forced Azerbaijan to sign a cease-fire agreement.
Hovhanisyan thinks that the conflict settlement took a wrong turn from the very beginning of the process.
In his opinion, it would be better for Armenia to put emphasis on legal, not political aspects of the problem.
He thinks that it would be better to seek recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s independence from Baku, instead of pursuing the policy of concessions.
Hovhanisyan said that Armenia will be unable to apply new methods to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict until it changes its home policy.
He thinks that either legal or political methods will be dysfunctional unless the home policy is changed.
Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.
On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.
Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it.
Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations.
Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. ----0---
“It is clear hat Armenia doesn’t pursue a senseless policy of concessions,” he said. “It means that a clear answer should be given to Ter-Petrosyan and his loyalists, who keep speaking about concessions on Karabakh, as 15 years ago.”
The lawmaker said that yet in 1991 Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the then president, expressed such sentiments.
Armenian and Karabakhi armies forced Azerbaijan to sign a cease-fire agreement.
Hovhanisyan thinks that the conflict settlement took a wrong turn from the very beginning of the process.
In his opinion, it would be better for Armenia to put emphasis on legal, not political aspects of the problem.
He thinks that it would be better to seek recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s independence from Baku, instead of pursuing the policy of concessions.
Hovhanisyan said that Armenia will be unable to apply new methods to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict until it changes its home policy.
He thinks that either legal or political methods will be dysfunctional unless the home policy is changed.
Karabakh conflict broke out in 1988 when Karabakh, mainly populated by Armenians, declared its independence from Azerbaijan.
On December 10, 1991, a few days after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a referendum took place in Nagorno-Karabakh, and the majority of the population (99.89%) voted for secession from Azerbaijan.
Afterwards, large-scale military operations began. As a result, Azerbaijan lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven regions adjacent to it.
Some 30,000 people were killed in this war and about one million people fled their homes.
On May 12, 1994, the Bishkek cease-fire agreement put an end to the military operations.
Since 1992, talks brokered by OSCE Minsk Group are being held over peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is co-chaired by USA, Russia and France. ----0---
