In the list of discussions, we can include the conference entitled “Armenians of Azerbaijan, lost Homeland, Corresponding Compensation” which took place yesterday at the “Congress” hotel. Some of the participants in the conference included representatives of NGOs and political organizations, former and present day deputies. The peaceful environment in the conference hall was sometimes interrupted with the “questions” asked by a group of speakers that had barged into the hall and they were assuring everyone that Armenia was not that weak and could “seize Baku in 15 days.” At the beginning of the conference, deputy of the National Assembly’s “Justice” grouping and former delegation member of the European Council Shavarsh Kocharyan discussed the present day model for the Karabagh conflict settlement negotiations based on information from the press, personal contacts which he has established during the session of the European Council’s special group for the Karabagh conflict. “We are trying to compact territorial totalitarianism and the right for national autonomy. They are in favor of territorial totalitarianism but that refers to the territories out of Karabagh. Yes to autonomy, but that refers to the territories of Karabagh,” says Sh. Kocharyan and adds that according to that model, Karabagh can not solve issues on its own and must have faith in the support of Armenia and a guaranteed tie between both countries. “The Lachin and Meghri passages are not equal to one another; as for the tie between Nakhijevan and Baku, discussions are being led for open communications between the two,” says the deputy. According to Kocharyan, the abovementioned model for the Karabagh peace settlement is foreseen to carry out the following way: the territories under the control of Karabagh must be returned or a part of them, Azeri who had been living in Karabagh until the start of the conflict must come back to Karabagh; after which, a referendum for the Republic of Nagorno Karabagh status and the decision must be final for all sides concerned. According to Sh. Kocharyan, the return of lands does not mean the progress of Azeri armed forces. “International peacemakers will separate the sides. As soon as both sides come to terms, the peacemaking officials in Warsaw will be ready to carry out their activities,” says Kocharyan. However, he doesn’t believe that the Karabagh conflict will be solved in 2006. The deputy sees progress in the negotiations led for the Karabagh peace settlement. According to him, “moving forward with the autonomy principle and the territorial totalitarianism at the same time is already a progress.” In contrast to Sh. Kocharyan, another participant of the conference-federative member of the Foreign Relations council of the National Assembly Armen Rustamyan- is of the opinion that in reality, there are no negotiations between the sides discussing the Karabagh conflict and he considers the meetings of presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan as consultations. He claims that there can not be any decisions made based on those consultations until the people of Karabagh don’t agree. In A. Rustamyan’s opinion, there must be changes made in the Armenian side’s strategies for the Karabagh peace settlement. In his words, the Armenian side must take the initiative for the Karabagh peace settlement and not follow up on the development of events just like it is doing now. Rustamyan believes that the Armenian side must make proposals and discuss them and come to terms not with Azerbaijan, but rather, with international structures. According to Mr. Rustamyan, the Armenian side must make sure that it will get the support of the international organizations through the proposals that it makes and must get to the point that international structures take the initiative for solving the conflict based on the principle of autonomy; after all, the people of Karabagh have created an autonomous country corresponding to international norms. “In this case, Azerbaijan’s orientation becomes secondary,” he says. Yesterday, during the conference, A. Rustamyan drew a parallel between the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the recognition of Karabagh in the world. “Turkey itself doesn’t recognize the Armenian Genocide, however, that is not a problem for the world to recognize and condemn the crime committed. That is what should be done for the Karabagh conflict,” states Rustamyan. According to A. Rustamyan, we must lead the process of the international recognition of Karabagh parallel to the relations with Azerbaijan without basing the recognition on relations. “If we want to do this, we must change our speaker,” he says and is of the opinion that our speaker for leading the process is the international structures and if, let’s say, different countries in the world start recognizing the independence of Karabagh, Azerbaijan will realize that it is going against the world. As to how the Armenian side must make other countries recognize the independence of Karabagh, Armenia must officially recognize the independence of Karabagh because “there are all the facts needed for that.” According to Rustamyan, the Armenian side must lead propaganda in order to separate the Karabagh conflict from the rest of the conflicts in the world. In A. Rustamyan’s words, international organizations do not know about the rights pertaining to the people of Karabagh due to the fact that it is not recognized in the world as a state. According to the president of the Foreign Relations Council of the National Assembly, the most principal issue-the situation in Karabagh-is not discussed by the Armenian and Azeri sides and the reason is that Karabagh is not participating in those discussions.
