Levon Zurabyan: Unilateral recognition of Karabakh means giving Azerbaijan 'casus belli' (video)
A1+ Company today asked Levon Zurabyan, Vice-Chairman of the Armenian National Congress (HAK), to comment on the opposition bill mandating Karabakh’s recognition by Armenia. Zurabyan, who also heads the HAK faction in the Armenian National Assembly, said Armenia’s first President and HAK Leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan had already expressed their position on the matter in an article. After A1+ reminded Levon Zurabyan that Zaruhi Postanjyan, one of the co-authors of the bill, said that Ter-Petrosyan had tried to repeat what Serzh Sargsyan and Hermine Naghdalyan had already said in connection with opposition parliamentarians’ initiative. “And now, Levon Ter-Petrosyan has been ordered to say it,” Zaruhi Postanjyan said commenting on the first President’s article. “I do not view Zaruhi Postanjyan as an authority in issues concerning the Karabakh conflict and I do not think that I need to reflect on her assessment,” Levon Zurabyan said at Haghtanak (Victory) Park on May 9. Asked what his faction would do at the next plenary session as the legislature was going to put the bill to a vote, Mr Zurabyan said, “This is not the first time a similar bill is introduced in the National Assembly. I do not think we must vote against it. We shall vote for the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state but we shall do it only once. At this stage, we think that it is not the right time to put the bill to a vote, therefore we have decided not to participate in it.” In his article, Levon Ter-Petrosyan said ‘a unilateral recognition would be fraught with unpredictable and disastrous consequences.’ Asked to explain the reasons for such an opinion, Levon Zurabyan said, “I would not like to speak instead of Levon Ter-Petrosyan, but there are obvious reasons. There is a plan to hold a referendum in which Karabakh’s population would be free to determine the territory’s status. In fact, superpowers and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs have accepted Nagorno-Karabakh's right to self-determination and shown the way in which this right to self-determination can be exercised. Therefore, we say that unilateral recognition by Armenia will be fraught with disastrous consequences. In this regard, Mr Zurabyan stressed that by recognizing Artsakh Armenia will give Azerbaijan something which will be seen by the international community as ‘casus belli.’ “It is an act or excuse that is used to justify war,” Zurabyan stressed.
