Is it time for an Armenian precondition?
Specific terms have emerged in our political vocabulary in recent years that capture the struggles, hopes and disappointments of our journey. During the 30 years of the Artsakh liberation campaign, opposing views were expressed through the terms “self-determination” and “territorial integrity.”
Armenian interests, as defined by the former, are the right of all people to determine their own future. The latter served as Azerbaijan’s justification for oppressive policies toward Artsakh. Their warped sense of history centered on the false narrative that Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) is an integral part of Azerbaijan. They considered the Armenian liberation struggle as nothing more than a rebellious venture — a justification eerily similar to the Ittihad rationale for genocide, when Armenians were labeled as “disloyal and rebellious.” We know the truth, but truth is often lost when violent aggression and war crimes are committed.
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Finally, a good, constructive analysis appearing in a diaspora Armenian publication. Without the use of garbage-propagandistic lexicon.
MY PERCEPTION: Should Armenia have the Armenian prisoners as a pre-condition, Azerbaijan will right away reject it, for which Armenia has no recourse, whatsoever. Azerbaijan presents the Armenians held in Baku as an internal Azerbaijani matter.
Painful as it is, the only plausible way to secure their early release is through humanitarian consideration. Armenia is pursuing it, while negotating with Azerbaijan. Diaspora should also continue on pursuing their early release on humanitarian grounds.
@Vahe Apelian
The dozens of Armenians held by Azerbaijan, are not “prisoners” or “POWs” in the legal sense – they are hostages, and “potential” “bargaining chips” to be “used” by the dictator Aliyev. There could be even more Armenian hostages languishing in Azerbaijani prisons, because many Armenians went missing during the Second Artsakh War and during the fall of Artsakh, with their whereabouts unknown.
With a rogue dictatorship like Azerbaijan and with a murderous dictator like Aliyev, “overtures” and “niceties” by Pashinyan don’t work and won’t work, because Pashinyan is engaging from a position of weakness and Aliyev is as belligerent as ever. Dictators like Aliyev only understand strength and would only buckle under international pressure and painful sanctions. Unfortunately, no pressure on Azerbaijan to release the Armenian hostages has been forthcoming, when no sanctions were applied or even the threat of sanctions were issued in the first place, when Azerbaijan attacked Artsakh, later conquered Artsakh and ethnically cleansed all Armenians. Aliyev is bellicose, because he got away with his crimes and knows that he will continue to get away with potential future crimes, if the so-called “international community” does nothing. Since Pashinyan has no cards to play and is lukewarm about the release of the Armenian hostages, because they include one of his most bitter critics and he regards them as his potential rivals, it indeed falls to Armenian Diaspora organizations to actively lobby for their release.