Things are not looking too good after the Kocharyan-Aliev meeting in France regarding the Karabagh conflict. However, leader of the “Rodina” political party faction of the Russian Duma Dmitri Rogozin made an interesting announcement on February 15.
“I can’t really explain why it is taking so long for the two negotiatiors to come to terms regarding this conflict. After all, they must understand that they are being held responsible for their people and the world for that matter,” said Rogozin.
The leader of “Rodina” is of the opinion that the present situation of the Karabagh conflict is not good for both sides. He says that as a result of the conflict, Armenia and Azerbaijan are currently facing many political, economic, social and other issues, and the people of Karabagh continue to live in a blockade and fear the restart of a war. On the other hand, Rozogin is making proposals for resolving the Karabagh conflict. First of all, he talks about two facts: first, it is impossible to go back to the status that Karabagh had before the conflict and secondly, Karabagh is part of the conflict. Thus, Rogozin suggests going through phases.
In the first phase, the armed forces of Karabagh leave “all the territories of Azerbaijan which they were stationed at during the war, except Lachin”, which will serve as a barrier between Armenia and Karabagh. He suggests deciding the status of Karabagh later. On top of all this, he also suggests that the Armenian and Karabagh sides control the situation in Karabagh.
“Azerbaijan must agree with having Lachin under the control of Armenia and Karabagh,” says the leader of “Rodina”.
According to Rogozin, Azerbaijan will be able to come and go to Nakhijevan and he proposes the Azerbaijani side have the same conditions as the Armenian side has for the Lachin passage. Basically, Rogozin is suggesting a variant much like the so-called “Meghri variant”.
In the second phase, Rogozin says that the Azerbaijani refugees should have the opportunity to return to the homes that they used to live in before the Karabagh conflict. What’s interesting is that Rogozin says nothing about the Armenian refugees. Anyhow, according to the plan, after these phases, Azerbaijan must once again supply oil and gas to Armenia. He also suggests dislocating the Azerbaijani forces wherever they are stationed at until the deciding the status of Karabagh and handing over the control to the peacekeeping forces. According to Rogozin, those forces may be from Russia and other countries. However, he doesn’t picture those international forces without the “Russian component”. As for after the agreement on this variant, Rogozin suggests trusting international observers to follow up on fulfilling the agreement.
“The negotiators agree that the Karabagh conflict will either be resolved through negotiations or a popular referendum,” says the leader of “Rodina” political party faction and claims that Russia must become more active in the peace settlement. What’s interesting about this proposal made by Rogozin is that both the Armenian and Azerbaijani authorities have agreed with this. Rogozin didn’t mention any names, but he did say that the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) supreme body officials have agreed. However, the ARF denies that. Vice-speaker of the National Assembly and representative of the ARF Vahan Hovhannisyan told “Azatutyun” radio station that the ARF has not only disagreed, but also there are some points stated that do not fit in with ARF’s ideology.