This is what President of Karabakh Arkadi Ghukasyan said during his interview with journalists after the opening ceremony of a school in the Norashen village of the Hadrut region. He answered to questions concerning the UN resolution for the fires and sending observer groups to Karabakh for checking up on the fires.
“First of all, I must say that Karabakh was the first to propose that when Azerbaijan started a scandal. It’s obvious that it was all fake because the Azeri were the ones that started the fires and spread the word. The thing is that Karabakh has applied to different international organizations with the purpose of sending missionaries here because we want the international community to get a clear image of what’s really going on in Karabakh, especially in the regions close to the border. Since the OSCE missionaries are getting ready to come to Karabakh, it’s obvious that they will work with the authorities of Karabakh. We haven’t received any official statement, but I’m sure there will be. I believe that the missionaries will be objective when it comes time to express their opinions on what’s going on. Azerbaijan is after the same thing: to do everything it can to hurt Karabakh.”
In response to the question as to what he thinks about raising the issue at the UN, Ghukassyan said:
“I don’t consider that a good idea because Karabakh has always applied to the OSCE to solve the problems and the situation could get complicated by involving other international organizations. This doesn’t benefit the sides and the conflict settlement. Unfortunately, Karabakh isn’t represented in those foreign structures and Armenia has made it clear that it’s against having any international organization get involved in those issues that the OSCE is already involved in. I think that the best thing is diplomacy and Armenian diplomacy has to be more active. Unfortunately, what we have today is the Azeri diplomats attacking and Karabakh being forced to defend. I think it’s time for us to attack too.”