"Armenia has no policy on the Karabakh conflict"
Head of the "Heritage" faction, political scientist Stepan Safaryan views the field evaluation mission headed by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh from October 4-14 as inadmissible.
"A1+": Mr. Safaryan, what is your biggest concern about this mission?
Stepan Safaryan: I am concerned about the report that will be prepared after the mission. Regardless of the content, just the title of the report (the mission was held in the "seized territories of Azerbaijan") is enough to say that there will be problems with granting another status to those territories.
"A1+": Do you see any connection between this mission and Azerbaijan taking back the resolution on the "Situation in the seized territories of Azerbaijan" from the agenda of the 64th UN General Assembly session?
S. S.: This was the same situation in 2007 when Azerbaijan presented another draft resolution on the "Situation in the seized territories of Azerbaijan" during another session of the UN General Assembly. As the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and former RA Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan confessed later, the discussion of that resolution was taken out of the UN General Assembly's agenda just because the Armenian side had agreed to send a fact-finding mission to the liberated territories.
"A1+": Why aren't the Armenian authorities claiming to implement a similar mission in the Armenian territories under Azerbaijan's control?
S. S.: The Armenian authorities have no policy or demand in relation to the Karabakh conflict. They have left it all up to the international community, including the recognition of Artsakh's status and they only agree to one proposal or, in the best case scenario, they can reject those proposals. The reason is because Armenia doesn't know what kind of policy it is leading. Unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan has a very clear-cut policy on the Karabakh conflict. It is trying to fix its right not only in the liberated territories, but Karabakh itself step by step through reports and organizations.
"A1+": What is it that the Armenian government can do and is not doing?
S. S.: "Heritage" faction sees only one solution. In order to put an end to the reports on the liberated territories belonging to Azerbaijan at the level of international organizations and the dangerous processes, Armenia simply has to recognize the NKR with the borders by which it was declared an independent state.
Interview by Victoria Abrahamyan
