Leaders say conflict should be resolved peacefully
SOCHI (Asbarez)–Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan met at the Russian president’s summer residence on Aug. 10 and pledged that the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict must be resolved peacefully.
“I am glad to state that the President of Azerbaijan drew attention to the necessity of resolving the problem peacefully, and the President of Armenia has agreed. This is, in fact, very important, because there is no greater tragedy than the death of people,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said, according to reports on the Armenia president’s official website.
President Putin met with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts – Serge Sarkisan and Ilham Aliyev – in his residence in Sochi to discuss the current situation in the disputed Nagorno-Karabagh enclave in the South Caucasus.
“We should show patience, wisdom, respect to each other to find this solution,” added Putin.
During the meeting, Aliyev said that “the UN adopted four resolutions demanding an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian occupation forces from Azerbaijani territory. Unfortunately, these resolutions have remained on paper for over 20 years”.
“I hope that in the near future we will find a peaceful, negotiated solution that will be in line with the norms and principles of international law and in line with justice,” Aliyev said.
Sarkisian in turn asked the Azerbaijani leader whether official Baku had fulfilled the resolution that Aliyev keeps pointing to.
“The Azerbaijani side constantly refers to four resolutions of the UN. My rhetorical question to Mr. Aliyev is: What paragraph of those resolutions has been fulfilled by Azerbaijan?” the Armenian President said.
He added that Armenia fulfilled the requirements and exercised its influence so that no hostilities could take place.
Sarkisian also said that in the 1990s the sides reached an opinion that there can be no military solution to the conflict.
“And if we accuse each other again, I think the conflict will not be resolved for a long time,” added Sarkisian, stressing that “the resolution of this issue stems from the national interests of Armenia.”
Sarkisian and Aliyev both said that the conflict could be resolved through “compromise” solutions proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group and within the parameters of that initiative,
“We hope that soon, by means of negotiations, by peaceful means, we shall find a solution to comply with international law and with justice,” Aliyev said.
On Aug. 9, Putin a held one-on-one meetings with Sarkisian and Aliyev.
Meanwhile, tension on the Karabagh-Azerbaijan and Armenia-Azerbaijan borders continued, with both sides claiming casualties.
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Why isn’t Pres. Sarkisyan telling Pres. Aliev that Artsakh has always been part of Historic Armenia. The whole world knows what Stalin did on taking Armenia’s Historic lands such as Artsakh & Nakhichevan back in 1922 and gave them to Azerbaijan. He also gave Javakh to the Georgians, since Stalin himself was a Georgian and on top of this he gave Kars & Ardahan to Turkey. Why arnt these issue brought up to the world powers to condemn Pres. Aliev on his made up false issues. Nobody talks what the Soviets & the Turks did in reducing Armenia in it’s Historic Territories that she rightfully deserves to have back including the Sevres Treaty that Turkey, Armenia, & 16 other nations signed in August of 1920. That Sevres Treaty is still a valid Treaty because two illegal revolutionaires took over their governments. One was Kemal Attaturk, whom took over the newly elected Turkish Government after the 1st World War & Lenin whom illegally took over the Czarist Government in 1917. Nobody has addressed these issues.
I was extremely disappointed by watching the video of the opening statements of the three presidents. Please check out this video at [ http://news.am/eng/videos/166.html ] (please cut and paste), from arrival to the end. Although I do not understand Russian, I thought our side was lacking greatly in having;
1)an assertive tone of voice clear and articulating;
2)a body language that projects self-confidence;
3)no attempt for not being portrayed as no 3 around the table!! Quality help is urgently needed (now!) for image building and Obama-style speech delivery, even for the short period left in this second term of presidency.
As usual, the same old dog and pony show! However, President Aliyev is neither the dog nor the pony. He’s the two-legged hyena; therefore, I think it would be more appropriate to call this the dog, hyena, and pony show. Anyway, the three of them gathered again to sit down and engage into the same old discussion about how to resolve the conflict in Artsakh. Well, there’s only one solution to the problem here; and that solution consists of President Aliyev fully comprehending that the Artsakh Republic whose population is entirely Armenian, claims its independence which therefore means that there’s absolutely no chance of Artsakh being reattached to Azerbaijan. Of course, we all know that President Aliyev will never accept such a thing. As a result, the Artsakh conflict will continue on.
What really doesn’t make any sense in all of this, is that on one hand, you have President Aliyev who spends so much of his time spreading false information about Artsakh; and then on the other hand, you have President Sargsyan who doesn’t have much to say in regard to Artsakh. What he needs to be doing, is to inform the world that due to the decision of Josef Stalin in giving the Armenian land of Artsakh to the Azeris in 1923, it therefore became part of Azerbaijan under the former Soviet constitutional law; however, upon the dismantling of the former Soviet Union in 1991, its constitutional law became terminated which therefore means that Azerbaijan’s territorial claims to Artsakh were no longer valid after 1991. Why is President Sargsyan not capable of saying all this? Instead of trying so hard to please Europe, Russia, and the United States, who have no consideration whatsoever for the Artsakh people’s human rights, President Sargsyan should instead be fighting for the human rights of his brothers and sisters. And by not doing so, this makes him a saboteur.
Putin’s peace plan is quite clear and simple. Since no solution can be found which would be acceptable to both Artsakh and Azerbaijan, his plan is to slowly implant Russian so-called peace keeping troops in or around Artsakh, starting with the line of contact, then make the territory part of his customs union and the problem is solved. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan would get Artsakh, but he would. Neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan would be able to lift a finger against Russia. This would perfectly fit with OSCE terminology that both sides have to make painful concessions. He said he would raise the troops issue at the Sochi meeting, but we didn’t hear a beep from the two visiting presidents. But wait for the follow-up meeting to be announced very soon. If Azerbaijan wants war, it is fine too with Putin whose intentions are to shake the West; oil will stop flowing, and he would sell arms and ammunition to both belligerent parties, who need him badly. He is in a win-win situation; he is popular in Russia and not going to be toppled soon. As for Artsakh, probably the train has already left the station, while our inexperienced politicians are snoozing on the job and not selling Artsakh independence hard enough. What a pity!
Putin has clearly stolen the agenda from OSCE and the West who keep rumbling about BS international law, territorial integrity sometimes with, sometimes without the self-determination clause, changing it to fit their self-interests as they go along depending on the mood of the day. The big losers will be the Co-Chairs, who would lose their travelling expense accounts.
The Treaty of Sèvres was annulled as not all parties ratified it, also the treaty was not acceptable to the Turkish national movement which had emerged as a representative of the Turkish people during these turbulent times and resulted in the course of the Turkish War of Independence. When all parties signed and ratified the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 ending all speculations and defining the land borders of Turkey, this treaty was ratified by all parties and came into force in 1924, the Treaty of Sevres was superceeded.
Armenia has till date not made any formal objection to the Treaty of Lausanne in the UN since 1991, implying that they do not have a problem with it.
Actually, the government of Armenia does not accept the current borders with Turkey. So, that by itself is an objection to the Treaty of Lausanne.
The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992. 22 years have elapsed and absolutely no progress has been made. What the Minsk Group has been doing all this time is a mystery.
The US Co-chair of the group James Warlick has been a mitigated disaster. He has no clue and is merely the puppet of the US Government. As the US Government’s policy is muddled and unclear , so is Mr. Warlick’s opinion and lack of action.
Of the three co-chairs, Russia and Putin are the only one who can have a meaningful influence on the process of resolving the conflict. Sadly, even though Russia does not want to have any armed conflicts in its southern borders, it seems that for the present maintaining the “peace” and the “status quo” is their objective and intent. The Sochi meeting did not result in anything tangible other than a temporary cessation of the hostilities.
Putin is a shrewd political animal. Whether we like it or not, admit it or not, Armenia has too many ties with Russia, economical and political and heavily dependent on Russia.
And right now, Russia has its hands full with the conflict in the Ukraine, which has far more reaching implications than the conflict between Armenia and the Azeris.
A very complicated situation. But the bottom line is that an eventual resolution will highly depend on what Putin wants it to be.
This is the sad reality.
Vart Adjemian
Reply to (Mir Ali // August 13, 2014 at 5:20 am //)
{“The Treaty of Sèvres was annulled….”}
The Treaty of Sevres was signed on the Turkish side by the legally recognized representatives of the Ottoman Empire, itself a legally recognized State.
Ottoman Turkey entered WW1 in 1914, upon insistence of its secret ally Germany, by launching an unprovoked, sneak attack on Russia.
Ottoman Turkey was defeated in WW1, and as a defeated party was compelled to agree to the dismemberment of OE.
A representative of Armenia, a party recognized as an established state by the signing parties, also signed The Treaty of Sevres, as did reps of other countries.
(some countries, e.g. Greece, objected to what they were awarded and did not sign).
So, as far as two legally recognized signatories are concerned, Ottoman Turkey and Democratic Republic of Armenia, the Treaty of Sevres has not been annulled.
The Republic of Turkey is a legal successor state of OE.
Armenia did not sign the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, because an independent State called Armenia did not exist in 1923.
The Treaty of Moscow, superseded by Treaty of Kars (1921), were signed between two internationally unrecognized, therefore illegitimate, entities: Kemal* and Lenin.
Neither treaty is therefore valid.
Representatives of Soviet Armenia also signed the Treaty of Kars (…as directed by Lenin from Moscow). But Soviet Armenia, which had become part of the unrecognized Soviet Union at that time, was also internationally unrecognized, so the Treaty of Kars is null and void as far as Armenia is concerned.
As far as Armenia is concerned, the Wilsonian arbitral award still stands and is legal.
Parties, which included defeated Ottoman Turkey, agreed to the Arbitration, and thereby agreed a priori to its decision.
{“ Armenia has till date not made any formal objection to the Treaty of Lausanne in the UN since 1991, implying that they do not have a problem with it.”}
The RoA declaration of Independence of 1991, says in part, “Genocide….in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia…”.
Note the specific inclusion of the phrase “Western Armenia” (and not Eastern Turkey).
Next, when inexperienced Armenian executive leadership (Pres Sargsyan administration) was trapped into signing the infamous Protocols, the ‘landmines’ were quickly identified by Armenian experts, publicized, and massive protests of Armenian people, both in RoA and Diaspora, erupted. Eventually the Constitutional Court of RoA contained the damage**.
(read http://armenianweekly.com/2010/01/19/sassounian-constitutional-court-limits-protocols%E2%80%99-damage-to-armenian-national-interests/
e.g. {the Court used the term “checkpoint” rather than “border,” thereby indirectly refusing to accord legal recognition to Armenia’s present boundary with Turkey})
(also read: http://asbarez.com/111599/in-major-policy-shift-armenia-demands-lands-from-turkey/)
{While skeptics may not take seriously the recent policy pronouncements of the Armenian authorities, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has no such doubts. Last week, Ankara denounced the Armenian territorial demands, announcing angrily that “nobody can dare to claim territory from Turkey!”}
So yes, in fact RoA has clearly objected to and does not recognize the legitimacy of Lausanne.
But it would be foolish for RoA to raise the issue at UN at this time, since it will go nowhere.
RoA is a small country, and UN is run by the Big Boys: Armenia could claim any number of legitimate things at UN, and nobody would give a hoot.
Even Russia, which is one of the 5 permanent members and has the military power to do what it wants, is restrained by geopolitical realities.
That’s how it works.
When the time is right and advantageous for Armenia, the Wilsonian Arbitral Award will be invoked.
And the time will be right when _all_ the Big Boys agree to stick it to Turkey, and will use the Wilsonian arbitral award as the legal vehicle.
Right now Turkey is protected by US and GB, so things need to shift geopolitically: give it time.
It’s OK: the time is not right for RoA at this time either; we have lots of more urgent things on our plate.
Harissa needs to cook over low heat for a long time, and stirred regularly, to develop its delicious, distinctive taste: if you hurry, you’ll spoil it.
—–
* actually something called “Government of the Grand National Assembly”
** Overwhelmngly Armenian experts, both in RoA and Diaspora, agree that RoA _must_ withdraw its signature.
I’ll never understand why you guys keep mentioning Turks or Turkey anytime and every time Azeri’s do something. They are they’re own independent country. It has nothing to do with us. The only weapons we sold them are those Otokar Cobra’s from what I’ve seen. Russia sold them 4 Billion dollars worth of items maybe you should be angry with them. Azerbaijan is not Turkey.