Says the former minister of foreign affairs, ANC representative Alexander Arzumanyan
Yesterday it become known that Azerbaijan has requested to withdraw its resolution from the agenda of the UN General Assembly and asked to move it to the next GA session. Let us remember that according to the resolution they are urging that the Armenian troops must be immediately removed from the “occupied territories” of Azerbaijan and restore the previous right of the Azeris to return to their territories. Yesterday the foreign affairs ministry of Armenia rushed to praise all the member states of the UN as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair states, which with their attitude precluded the adoption of such an unconstructive resolution offered by Azerbaijan. However, the former minister of foreign affairs of Armenia, who had previously been the deputy-chair of the GA of the UN and a member of the General Committee Alexander Arzumanyan thinks there is no special reason to be too happy or to celebrate a diplomatic victory. This is how Mr. Arzumanyan interprets his viewpoint, “Today is the 64th session of the UN GA. In the evening the agenda will be discussed and it will be closed. According to the UN charter every second Tuesday of September the new UN GA session is opened. So the next 65th session is still on, which means that this issue will still be on the agenda till the 2nd Tuesday of September of the next year. So this issue will remain pending for us till then.” And so why did Azerbaijan remove the resolution from the 64th session of the UN? Arzumanyan thinks that it’s more than simple. The problem is that in this resolution there is a very important clause, according to which Azerbaijan demands a fact-collecting group from the OSCE an inclusion of UN experts in chare of refugee issues and other relevant matters. As it’s known during the visit of the c-chairs of the Minsk Group it was announced that they’d applied to the leadership of both the UN and the OSCE so that by the end of September the latter send a fact-collecting group to the 7 disputable territories, which would include representatives and experts from various international organizations. “Actually this is what Azerbaijan has wanted for a long time. That is the reason why they don’t find expedient to submit the resolution for a discussion,” said Arzumanyan. In the words of the ANC representative, this resolution didn’t fall from the sky and it would be possible to prevent it back in the day. “We should have actively worked for 365 days and present different resolutions ourselves. In that same resolution they are speaking that cultural heritage is being annihilated. The Armenian delegation could have presented a document regarding the annihilations of the cultural and historic legacy of Nor Jugha and would have received the same support from the international community. This is demonstration of passiveness,” said the former minister of foreign affairs. Let us mention that Azerbaijan has submitted resolutions with similar contents in 2006 and 2008 to the GA of the UN, which were adopted. To our question whether it will be adopted for the third time and if so what legal and political consequences there can be for us Mr. Arzumanyan responded, “Of course, these resolutions have consultative characters and are not legally binding but it’s worth mentioning that in any negotiation process resolutions and documents adopted by different international instances are important. I can bring up dozen of resolutions, which were adopted 47 times but they change the general notion. As they say a drop may make a hole on the rock.” Mr. Arzumanyan thinks that this step is intended to serve the strengthening of the step of Azerbaijan in the framework of the Minsk Group. Besides that, one of the goals is to adopt the terminology, which is being denied in the framework of the Minsk Group on part of other international structures so that in future there would be no disputes around those terms. As of the existence of the word “occupation” in relation to Armenia mentioned in the UN resolutions in this regard the opposition politician said, “I am ready to greet any country, which would recognize the NKR as an occupant state, which occupied the territory of Azerbaijan. This fact would consider the NKR a separate state and take into account the fact that it may have had occupied the neighboring states.” As an ANM member Mr. Arzumanyan also spoke about the current situation within that party and confessed that the expectations from the ANM were not sufficed. “You know that a congress took place, in which I didn’t take part in due o certain reasons. The fact that such calls were made is already unacceptable. Having been an ANM member, I have always thought that the AM is the liberal force, which definitely has internal democracy practiced.” At any rate he expressed hope that the ANM with its board may become the locomotive to lead the liberal wing and will make this ideology victorious in Armenia. To our question as to what is his opinion about the criticism addressed to the ANC Arzumanyan mentioned that the number of supporters is getting sparser as the force led by Levon Ter-Petrosyan wasn’t able to reach change to government. As a respond he said, “I don’t suffer in “gigantomania” and don’t think that it is necessary to have 500 thousand people in the square to reach change of government. The Soviet Union collapsed when only 7 scrupulous citizens raised a poster in the Red Square. They weren’t scared and raised their fist. This created the dissident movement and we enjoyed its products. Every person should struggle and I don’t wish to say the words mass revolt, hatred or other insulting words. But the fact is that the people do not accept the current government.” As of the frustration of the ANC members then the representative of the ANC said, “People get tired. Going to the rally is something like going to work. If you constantly hold a rally it becomes some kind of second work, which you spend in this or the other square. I am sure that when the moment of choice comes people will still show up and vote just like the way they did. I am tired of those words. They say the next rally will be powerful and crowded. Petros invites some people to his pavilion and says that it was that crowded and massive. Afterwards the ANC says that the next one is going to be crowded. I strongly believe that they need to have a clear agenda, a plan and someone to implement that. So the question is whether the ANC will find the strength and potential within itself to conduct the plan and make the necessary change. There will always be ways.” As a response to our question whether Arzumanyan envisions the same situation of the 7 people in the Red Square for the Armenian case scenario he said, “I have dozen of friends, who I trust and who trust me. And these people have proved that they are loyal. The Armenian people haven’t dried out so much.” As of the possible extraordinary elections the opposition politician said, “If there is no force majeure there will hardly be any extraordinary elections. I have never had any intentions to become a fortune teller or a superstitious person. Time will show everything.” What can be surprising in the upcoming rally speech of Levon Ter-Petrosyan for Arzumanyan (let us remember that the ANC spokesman Levon Zurabyan recently stated that Ter-Petrosyan’s speech will have surprises for everyone and will contain new emphases). According to Arzumanyan, “I don’t participate in the active preparatory activities and don’t know the details of the planned rallies but think that surprises can pop out any time.” When the journalists once again persisted that what can be a surprise for him, he said, “well if he states that Armenia is an inseparable part of China I will be surprised.”
