Is Ghukasyan Unsatisfied?

25/07/2005 Lilit SEYRANYAN

During an interview on public television, President of Nagorno Karabagh
Arkadi Ghukasyan announced that no matter how much Azerbaijan tries to
spread the “terrorism” propaganda, it will not be able to solve
anything without Karabagh. However, we must take into consideration the
fact that Azerbaijan was able to solve a less important issue without
the help of Armenia or Karabagh. They managed to put the following
issue up for discussion in the Chief Assembly of the UN: “The present
situation of the seven seized lands of Azerbaijan”. This issue will be
discussed during the month of December. The President of Nagorno
Karabagh is not the only one with optimistic views. Foreign Minister of
Armenia Vartan Oskanyan is also optimistic. This is shown by the
announcement that he made where he stated that the Armenian delegation
could not have a better orientation in the Karabagh peace settlement.
In addition, according to Oskanyan, the world has seemed to come to
accept Karabagh’s independence. During the same interview, President of
Nagorno Karabagh tried to go against Armenian delegates, one of them
being Vartan Oskanyan, in saying that the “structure of Armenia’s
delegation must work more efficiently”, they must explain to the
corresponding court instances how the war started and how the Armenians
won the war in the end. “Azerbaijan attacked and we liberated lands
through war,” said A. Ghukasyan as he recalled upon some facts for the
Armenian delegation. Ghukasyan’s press speaker Marina Hakobjanyan
answered our question as to what the President meant by saying that the
Armenian delegation must work more efficiently by giving the following
response: “He is not complaining about anyone or anything in
particular. When he says that he is unsatisfied, that does not mean
that he is complaining. Arkadi Ghukasyan is simply calling on Armenians
to be more active and do more in the corresponding court instances.”
Arkadi Ghukasyan had also stated that with or without Armenia, Karabagh
was ready to discuss the issues concerning the situation, the refugees
and the lands with Azerbaijan. However, as he claims, “Azerbaijan is
not ready to negotiate with Karabagh due to the fact that its political
figures have come to a final decision.” The reporter of the Foreign
Ministry of Nagorno Karabagh was asked to clarify what President
Ghukasyan was going to discuss with Azerbaijan concerning the seized
lands. However, the reporters refused to give a reply, affirming that
it was unethical to make interpretations of Ghukasyan’s announcements.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Nagorno Karabagh was
also asked to make interpretations regarding the announcements made two
months ago by the UPI agency, claiming that the U.S. and Azerbaijan
were going through negotiations of installing military bases in the
liberated lands: “How can such a decision reflect upon the national
security of the Republic of Nagorno Karabagh?” In response to this, the
reporters of the Foreign Ministry of the NKR said: “As far as we know,
that information has been denied a while back by the officials of
Azerbaijan. It is possible that those rumors are spreading towards all
countries involved in the Karabagh peace settlement and have a goal to
“brainwash” the countries in the Southern Caucasus. We believe that
there are no serious prerequisites for the implementation of
Azerbaijan’s plans. Thus, we see no necessity in having serious
discussions about this. As for the NKR’s orientation, it remains the
same. All problems associated with our republic’s security need to be
discussed with the republic which has full control, in this case, the
Republic of Nagorno Karabagh.”