Armenian authorities must once again raise issue of Artsakh Armenians rights at international level - Vartan Oskanyan
ArmInfo. The issue of restoring all the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and ensuring their right to return to their own homes must be returned to the international agenda by the Armenian authorities, former Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan stated during a live broadcast on Facebook. In this vein, the Armenian diplomat touched upon the resonant statement made on August 5 by the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia Toivo Klaar. The latter, in particular, emphasized the need to ensure the right of the Artsakh people to return to their homes. The European official also pointed out the need to separate the issues of the return of the Artsakh people to their historical homeland from the right of Azerbaijanis to return to Armenia, and Armenians to Azerbaijan.
According to Oskanyan, the assessments given by Klaar in this interview are all that he has already spoken about many times, especially regarding the right of the Artsakh people to collectively return to their historical homeland. The former head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry assured that, in general, positive dynamics are being formed in the international community on the issue of the return of Armenians to Artsakh while ensuring international security guarantees. He added that the results of meetings of representatives of the Committee for the Protection of the Fundamental Rights of the People of Artsakh both in Europe and in the United States allow him to make such judgments.
"During the 4 months of work of the Committee for the Protection of the Fundamental Rights of the People of Artsakh, we have actually not encountered a refusal to cooperate. The international community recognizes that our Committee represents the voice of the Armenians of Artsakh," the diplomat noted. Returning to the statements made by Klaar, the former head of the Foreign Ministry once again emphasized that his words once again prove the fact that the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not yet closed.
"If Azerbaijan thinks that it has resolved this issue by military means, then it is mistaken. The Artsakh conflict has not been resolved until the issues related to the return of the Artsakh people to their homes under international guarantees and the restoration of their rights are resolved. It remains to include this issue in the agenda," Oskanyan noted, in this vein calling on the Artsakh people and Armenians not to ignore this issue. "This is, first of all, a question of our responsibility. This is a question of the responsibility of the Armenian authorities. The Armenians of Artsakh suffered this fate because of the mistakes made by the current authorities of Armenia. Let us not allow the Armenian authorities to continue this series of mistakes, or in pursuit of justifying these mistakes, to consign to oblivion the issue of the rights of the people of Artsakh. Let us not allow the 150,000 Armenians of Artsakh to be forgotten just because the Armenian authorities are trying to clear themselves of this stigma. We are obliged to fight for the restoration of all rights, for their return to their homes under international guarantees and for a peaceful, fair resolution of the conflict. This issue must be put on the agenda first of all by the Armenian authorities," the diplomat concluded.
As ArmInfo previously reported, Klaar, in an interview with Jam-news, touching on the prospects of the return of the Artsakh people to their homes, expressed hope that the page of hostility and violence can finally be turned once and for all for the benefit of the entire population of the region, including the Karabakh Armenians.
"The EU has been very clear on this issue - and I also expect this - that the Karabakh Armenians will be part of the normalization process and that direct negotiations will take place between Baku and them on their safe and dignified return to their home region. Azerbaijan has obligations in this regard, which, I think, it does not deny," the European official added.
According to him, the parameters and conditions of such a future must be found and agreed upon through an inclusive and mutually respectful dialogue. "Sometimes other issues are raised in this context, for example, the issue of the so-called "Western Azerbaijan" (after the capture of Artsakh, Baku introduced the new term Western Azerbaijan - which implies the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia - ed.). For me, these are completely different issues that cannot be mixed.
The first is to facilitate the return of the Karabakh Armenians to their original homes, which is the responsibility of Azerbaijan. The second is the issue of the Armenians who lived in other parts of Azerbaijan, including Baku, or the Azerbaijanis who lived in Armenia.
Naturally, they should also be able to visit the places where they or their families lived, or even return there if they wish, and this should also be a consequence of the normalization of the situation, but this is a completely different issue than the specific issue of the Karabakh Armenians," Klaar said.
Klaar's statement caused hysteria in Baku. The Azerbaijani side confirmed its categorical determination not to allow the return of the Artsakh people to their historical homeland.