It has already been three months since Armenia is discussing the
possibility of returning the lands of Jebrail, Fizuli and Zangelan to
Azerbaijan. The lands are controlled by the Armenian armed forces. The
discussions about this all began when the UPI American media agency
announced the agreement between Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Safar
Abiyev and U.S. Vice State Secretary for Eurasian Issues Steven Payfer.
According to the agreement, American military bases will be stationed
in each of the three regions soon.
Parallel to that, there was news spreading that during the meeting of
Aliev and Kocharyan in Astana, Kocharyan had agreed to return the lands
of Jebrail, Zangelan and Fizuli. President of Demcus Aram Sargsyan
announced information regarding the return of the lands to Azerbaijan.
In addition, the President’s press speaker Ashot Kocharyan neither
denied the President’s decision nor affirmed it. What do the
authorities of Nagorno Karabagh have to say about all of this?We did
not get a chance to talk with President of NK Arkadi Ghukasyan because
Mr. Ghukasyan’s director of the press Marina Hakobjanyan did not
respond to the calls. Defense Minister of the NKR Seyran Ohanyan is
both against turning in the seized lands and the stationing of American
military bases. According to the Press Secretary of the NKR ‘s Ministry
of Defense Senor Hasrapyan, “Seyran Ohanyan has announced that he does
not consider the announcements made by Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan
as realistic (the announcements refer to the return of seized
lands-editor). As for the military bases, those territories are under
the control of the armed forces of the NKR. Many soldiers have shed
blood for those lands and we must defend ourselves until the end.” We
were also interested in finding out what the NKR ‘s Minister of
National Security Bako Sahakyan thought about all of this, however, his
assistant promised to respond after two days.
G.G.