On March 14 the General Assembly of the UN adopted the resolution on the situation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which specifically says, “In the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the conflict created in this regard endangers the international security and peace. Through this resolution the UN General Assembly once again recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.” Let us remember that such a resolution with a similar content was offered to the UN four years ago and by doing so Azerbaijan was trying to move the NKR conflict resolution from the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group to the UN. However, they succeeded in this only last month after the elections held in Armenia. After the adoption of this resolution Azerbaijan has applied to different international instances to alter the format of the Minsk Group co-chairmen. Meanwhile it activated its militant statements. After the adoption of the resolution in the General Assembly of the UN the RA President Robert Kocharyan stated that in the event of such developments Armenia may recognize the independence of the NKR. Only two days ago Kocharyan stated in Stepanakert Armenia may either recognize Karabakh’s independence or sign a security cooperation agreement with it. What consequences can the recognition have for us? “Those are of course nervous statements. What does it mean Armenia recognizes the independence of the NKR? This means putting a full stop on the negotiation process, after which Armenia and Azerbaijan can only speak to each other through tanks. The recession of the negotiation process will mean a war with Azerbaijan. Kocharyan is leaving in a week and can allow himself making all kinds of statements. Let’s not take him serious besides the fact that he had given an order to shoot the people,” stated political scientist Aghasi Arshakyan, who believes that Armenia will not recognize Karabakh’s independence now. Political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan also believes that Armenia’s recognition of the NKR won’t help the negotiation process at all. “In order to make the NKR be recognized by the international community we have to make Azerbaijan recognize it first. Only the international political situation may cause recognition. The fact that Armenia will try to recognize the NKR won’t daunt Azerbaijan and make it refuse it,” said Iskandaryan. The latter doesn’t think that if Armenia recognizes the independence of the NKR the negotiation process will stop. When speaking of other vital issues of foreign policy Yenokyan also adverted to the attitude of the US to Armenia after the presidential elections. In particular, he meant the threats of the US to sever the MCC funding. Let us remember that after the events of March 1 the executive director of the MCC John Danilovich in his letter to President Robert Kocharyan warned that in the event of a serious democratic regress the Corporation will have to stop the funding. As a response Kocharyan said in a few days that the Armenian side will be able to complete the launched projects at its own expense and with Armenia’s resources. A little later the CB chairman and a potential candidate of the Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan during his interview to one of the Russian media sources hinted that the money provided by the MCC may be substituted by the Russian funding. Regardless of all of this the recent visit of the representative of Kirk Kirkorian’s Linsy Foundation Harout Sasounyan gave grounds to assume that the MCC funding will still continue because as it was mentioned the US wouldn’t wish to reduce its influence on Armenia and give the total control to Russia. Regardless of the possibility of the recession of the MCC funding Yenokyan doesn’t believe that the funding flowing from Russia can ever be a balance to the Russian capital. “This is different money. The Russian money comes here as an investment. It means that Russia buys parts from Armenia. America provides the money mostly for reforms. Maybe they both have certain similarity. It is quite understandable that both of the funding help the existence of the government. Russia applies one type of corruption mechanisms and the US another type through grants.” In the interview published in the last edition of the 168-Zham newspaper the Minsk Group US Co-chairman Mathew Bryza’s wife, who is the director of the Eurasia Center of the Hudson Institute in Washington Zeyno Baran said that she hasn’t personally noticed any support from the US government to Levon Ter-Petrosyan. “I haven’t heard that the US officially supports Ter-Petrosyan. And in the long run if the US offers some conditions to Serzh Sargsyan it doesn’t support Ter-Petrosyan but instead ensures that no more blood is shed. Today we must understand that human rights must be protected everywhere, starting from Zimbabwe to the US. Therefore the steps of the US cannot somehow be considered as support to Ter-Petrosyan,” said Yenokyan.
