RA Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who has recently paid an official visit to Moscow, Russia, announced in Moscow that Armenia must recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan must recognize the self-determination right of Karabakh.
Although this was not the first time that Sargsyan or even many other statesmen have made such statements (FM of RA Oskanyan and RA President Kocharyan have also stated this) this time those originated more attention and noise in Armenia, which is also perhaps connected with the upcoming presidential elections in Armenia. In fact this statement is not news; such statements have been made for the past 7-8 years by high-rank officials of Armenia. As a rule when you ask the authors of those statements that regardless of what the NKR conflict resolution is NKR is going to remain in the sovereignty of Azerbaijan they say, “No. NKR has never been part of Azerbaijan. The territorial integrity of Armenia has got nothing to do with Karabakh.” Let’s remember that this formulation has been circulated since November 1999. It is when Robert Kocharyan signed the OSCE Istanbul Charter, which factually meant that Armenia admits that NKR conflict must be settled in the framework of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. But as in 1998 the Armenian government was replaced for a new one, which was promising a 8000-square-kilometer independent Karabakh an absurd situation was created after signing the Istanbul Charter. Since that they have started to apply the statement, by which “Karabakh has never been part of Azerbaijan.” After this we must admit that yes, Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. And at first sight it seems that this way we avoid from consequences of signing a document, which says NKR is part of Azerbaijan, however there is one tiny detail here. What territory does Armenian FM Oskanyan mean by saying Karabakh when he claims that NKR has never been part of independent Azerbaijan? It’s obvious that in this case we are speaking of the former autonomous marz of Soviet Azerbaijan, which declared its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this case a question originates. What territories are beyond the borders of the former autonomous marz of Karabakh and which are currently under the control of Armenians? Which part of it is “occupied” by Armenia? As of Sargsyan’s statement made in Moscow “Armenia must recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan” he didn’t clarify what exactly he means by that and how in his opinion the conflict is going to be regulated. And now political forces of Armenia are trying to interpret Sargsyan’s statement by trying to guess what the Prime Minister could possibly mean by that. Yesterday Kiro Manoyan, in charge of Hay Dat and Political Affairs of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun Bureau, hosted at the Hayatsk club, was asked to comment on the prime minister’s statement on the recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. “We know that Artsakh is not part of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. We are not occupying any territory. We have liberated territories. The territories are Artsakh. Mountainous Karabakh and the Lowlands are all Artsakh. Artsakh is not part of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. And the legal grounds are that the borders of Azerbaijan have not been defined. We think Artsakh is not part of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. The Karabakh issue is the core issue,” Kiro Manoyan says. In his words even the international instances, which say that they recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity they don’t do that in fact by reasoning that the dispute over NKR still exists. “If they said not to recognize the territorial integrity, it would mean that they recognize the independence of Karabakh,” says Manoyan. “We have stated that our statements do not compare to, are not adequate to Azerbaijan’s militaristic statements. And it seems that we have already given it away, without getting anything in return. Therefore, we have nothing else to give away except for peace,” Kiro Manoyan says. According to him, what is not under Armenian control is ours, as well as the Armenian regions, part of Martakert, Shahumyan, Getashen, which are now occupied by Azerbaijan. Kiro Manoyan considers Aghdam as part of Artsakh as well. Although Kiro Manoyan has heard about statements by Vardan Oskanyan and Serzh Sargsyan on returning the territories, he says we won’t let them return the lands. He stated that he is aware of the statements of the government to return certain liberated territories to Azerbaijan but he said that they won’t allow any of the territories to be returned.
