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KARABAKH PART OF AZERBAIJAN

Politics

During the last month the RA Minister of Foreign Affairs Vardan Oskanyan paid serious visits and had a number of important meetings. Journalists were interested in the viewpoints on 2008 presidential elections, particularly about the main candidates Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Serge Sargsyan.

“Nobody makes any difference between the Prime Minister and Levon Ter-Petrosyan. They refer to all candidates equally”, said Oskanyan. He considers that it’s too soon to say which candidate has more chances to win. “We may talk about it when the voting day approaches, when the surveys show who the leaders are. Today all candidates are observed equally”. “A1+” asked Mr Oskanyan to comment on U.S. Chargé d´Affaires Joseph Pennington’s announcement that the US Government was disappointed in the RA Central Electoral Commission, since the CEC did not reply to the US’s proposal to organize training for the members of electoral commissions before elections.

Pennington also mentioned that he was concerned by the freedom of broadcasting mass media in Armenia, since the role of independent mass media was vital during the elections. Vardan Oskanyan doubted to elucidate the reasons of the US Government’s disappointment, but ensured: “The RA authorities, the President and the Prime Minister are willing to conduct the elections legally. All international structures that are interested to carry out observation mission in Armenia will receive corresponding invitations. Some of them have already received invitations”.

Oskanyan hopes that after the 2008 presidential elections, Armenia will continue its complementary policy in regard with its foreign policy. To the question that after the meeting of the OSCE ministers in Madrid the Armenian part says that the document presents Karabakh self-determination right, while the Azerbaijani part says that it presents the self-determination right of Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. “Maybe Azerbaijani wish is kind, but it should not be decided before the self-determination”, said Vardan Oskanyan.

He tries to motivate his declaration by an example: “There are cases in the international relations, when the whole nation determined to remain in the composition of another country. Québec is a bright example to that. Québec nation voted and determined to remain in Canada’s composition. When it comes to referendum Nagorno-Karabakh nation will make its choice”. By the way, the NKR population have already conducted a referendum and self-determined, although Azerbaijan does not admit the results of the referendum.

To the question of “A1+” what can make Karabakh people live in the composition of Azerbaijan, Vardan Oskanyan responded: “I do not ignore your question, but I have given the answer to that question to Tatul Hakobyan, who is going to publish a book on Nagorno-Karabakh problem.You will find the answer to that question and to many other questions in his book”.