Recently, many people are talking about the possible agreements to be made during the Karabagh peace settlement in 2006. Different politicians and international organizations have been stating their opinions about the peace settlement in the media. They are talking about organizing a referendum for the Karabagh peace settlement, the return of refugees, returning the lands that are under the control of Karabagh to Azerbaijan and the allocation of international peacemaking troops.
It is clear that the authorities of Karabagh emphasize the importance of the people’s opinion on the Karabagh peace settlement process, however, what is also clear is that there is little work being done towards getting the opinion of the people. Whereas the people living in the city know more or less about what is going on, the people living in the regions don’t know much. Only few of the residents know about the process.
What do the people of Karabagh have to say about this? What do they think about the suggestions being made?
With the purpose of getting answers to these questions and hear the opinions of the people of Karabagh, the “Open Society” NGO, which carries out its activities in Karabagh, conducted a survey recently. The title was “What do the people of Karabagh have to say about the Karabagh peace settlement?” There were 309 residents that participated out of which 17 were pensioners, 15 were students, 215 were people working for state and private companies, another 17 were soldiers, and another 45 were unemployed people. Out of the 309 residents surveyed, 149 were below the age of 35; 87 of them were between the ages of 35-50 and 74 of them were 50 and older. There were 199 female and 110 male participants.
The survey was conducted in the capital city of Karabagh and different regions. There were 184 residents from Stepanakert, 26 from Martuni, 30 from Hadrut, 30 from Shushi, 19 from Martakert and 20 from Shahumyan.
The residents were asked 6 questions. “How should the Karabagh conflict be solved?” To this question, 173 of the 309 answered that the conflict should by solved by recognizing Karabagh’s independence, 110 chose the “Karabagh joining Armenia” variant. Nobody agreed on “Autonomy within Azerbaijan”.
Out of the 309 people surveyed, 217 were against returning the lands under the control of Karabagh to Azerbaijan; 53 believe that not all regions must be returned and others agree on returning the lands only if Karabagh’s independence is recognized.
153 people believe that another war will start if Azeri refugees return to Karabagh; 105 residents are of the opinion that there will be democratic explosion and Armenians will be deported from Karabagh; 24 believe that there will be new refugees.
“What will the allocation of international peacemaking troops in the conflict zone lead up to?” The majority of people (189) answered that the conflict will get more serious; 58 believe that nothing will change; 41 people think that there will be peace for a long time and 21 residents believe that there will be a short-lived peace.
Out of the 309 participants, 194 claim that the people that have committed crimes must be brought to justice; 71 people believe that that is up to the International Court to decide and 36 are of the opinion that nobody should be punished.
The majority of the participants (168) are not in favor of organizing a referendum for the Karabagh peace settlement; 79 agree. The rest had difficulty in responding.
According to the “Open Society” NGO council member Naira Hayrumyan, they plan on discussing the same topic with Karabagh authorities, representatives of social sectors and politicians.