During the September 6-10 visit of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to Armenia it was announced that they would be returning to the region, specifically to the NKR to conduct monitoring of the humanitarian situation, which is due in late September or beginning of October.
Together with the co-chairs representatives of various international organizations will also visit the region. This is actually what Azerbaijan has been demanding in the framework of its resolution brought up during 64th session of the UN General Assembly. Let us recall that according to this document Azerbaijan was demanding that the OSCE should send a fact-collecting group with the involvement of the UN refugee department and experts of other international structures. A day ago the spokesman of the foreign affairs ministry of Azerbaijan Elhan Polukhov stated that in the beginning of October the members of the international mission will survey the situation in the 7 districts of the NKR, the historic and cultural monuments and facts of the destruction of communication means of Azerbaijan. They will acquire in their hands information on the actual situation in the 7 districts. Yesterday the special envoy of the UN, deputy-chair of the of the EU experts’ group Vaira Vike-Freiberga stated that the UN will appoint its representative of special issues because it may accelerate the resolution of the conflict. According to the Azerbaijani media the fact-collecting group will be in the region most probably starting from October 5. Let us mention that after the introductory visit of the OSCE delegation to the NKR in 2005 no other similar visit was paid. It is anticipated that after the visit of the fact-collecting group a report will be submitted. We tried to find out the opinion of the authorities of Armenia and the NKR regarding this matter. We also inquired what the negotiation process will look like after the visit of the fact-collecting group. NKR president Bako Sahakyan’s spokesperson Davit Babayan delivered us the opinion of the president. “It is early to speak about the hazard of the expected visit. A similar mission was held in 2005 but it didn’t bring any consequence or result. On the other hand this was the desire of the co-chairs but this desire or suggestion is not unilateral. After that it is planned to conduct a similar mission in the districts of the NKR that are under the occupation control of Azerbaijan. In particular these districts are Shahumyan, Martakert, Martuni, Getashen and others. The co-chairs only wish to get introduced to the situation in the first hand. We don’t see anything dangerous here. Let them go and see that these territories are inseparable part of the NKR. Let them see that people live there like in their fatherland and that it’s going to be like that always,” he said. Let us remember that none of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs has ever pointed out the possibility of conducting a similar mission in the territories under the control of Azerbaijan. Nonetheless, if this mission doesn’t contain anything dangerous why is Azerbaijan so interested and pretentious about the conduct of this mission? As a response to our question Babayan said, “Here is not the interest level of Azerbaijan but the fact of the suggestion to which we gave our consent. This is not the initiative of the Azeris. They will only come to see that these territories are inseparable part of Karabakh. They will see that the situation in Karvatchar is the same as in Stepanakert. I don’t think that they can bring up any argument. Besides that it is not up to these arguments to determine the future of the NKR status. Those opinions cannot change anything in the region. This issue has been solved.” Azerbaijan constantly brings up various resolutions to various international instances by qualifying Armenia an “occupant-state” and defiling the essence of the issue. Won’t these resolutions, which in these cases mostly remain unanswered on part of Armenia, harm Armenia if the report of the fact-collecting delegation reflects the negative traits, which Azerbaijan constantly brings up? To our question Babayan gave the following answer, “These territories occupied by Azeris, had been populated by Armenians 15o years ago. Armenians were ousted from these territories. And now only the historic justice is restored. For example, today there are millions of Palestinians that were ousted from their territories in 1940s. So what? At any rate, the situation is that it cannot go back to the state of 88.” During his conversation with us the former foreign affairs minister of Armenia Alexander Arzumanyan qualified this mission very dangerous. “The dangers are obvious. In the text the dangers are dictated line by line. If a delegation is visiting, which should conduct survey in the occupied territories and collect facts about the conditions of the Azerbaijani monuments there can be no more danger than this.” Mr. Arzumanyan also said that the Azeris are voicing that in those territories their cultural heritage is being destroyed but the Armenian side is being silent. According to Arzumanyan Azerbaijan reached the goal is intended to. We told Arzumanyan that despite his pessimism regarding the mission the government of Azerbaijan assures that there is nothing to be concerned about. “Really? Good job! I am glad for them,” said Arzumanyan. We tried to receive clarifications from the foreign affairs ministry of Armenia as well. The official response of the ministry is more than noteworthy. This information was passed to us by the spokesperson of the ministry of foreign affairs of Armenia Tigran Balayan. “All the questions regarding this matter should be addressed to the co-chairs and the authorities of the NKR. We don’t have any comments regarding this matter.” The strange thing is that when it became clear that Azerbaijan withdraw its resolution from the agenda of 64th session of the UN General Assembly seconds later the RA foreign affairs ministry circulated a statement, in which this deed was considered the diplomatic victory of Armenia. And today that this matter remains not only on the agenda of the UN but also one of its main requirements is being fulfilled the government of Armenia decides to remain silent and guide with the principle, “they are going to Karabakh. So let the government of the NKR be accountable.”