ArmInfo.The Artsakh Armenians' exodus thwarted the plans of Baku and Moscow to keep up to 15,000 people hostage, History Professor Ruben Karapetyan writes in his article entitled "Priority tasks of the moment."
According to him, if a small group of Armenians remained in Artsakh, Moscow would receive justification for the presence of its "peacekeeping" forces, and Baku, in a "civilized" way under the fiction of "reintegration," would finally close the Artsakh issue for the international community. However, the mass exodus of Armenians thwarted these plans. Various European structures (European Parliament, PACE), as well as France, characterized the incident as ethnic cleansing and clearly established the right of Artsakh Armenians to return.
As the professor noted, the time factor in diplomacy is one of the most important. "This is why we need not to miss this opportunity and immediately act at this historical stage towards the implementation of the following priority goals: preserving the subjectivity of the Republic of Artsakh, confirmation by the international community of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination and ensuring the safe return of Artsakh citizens to their homeland through the implementation of international peacekeeping mechanisms.
In the current conditions, the continuation of the activities of state bodies of the Republic of Artsakh is of vital importance. The international community needs the existence of unrecognized, but elected, legitimate bodies of Artsakh to continue this process," Karapetyan emphasized.
He added that today it is important that the Supreme Court of Artsakh recognizes the decree of the President of Artsakh on the dissolution of the Republic, signed under obvious pressure, as unconstitutional. Then the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh, at an off-site session, must approve a shortened list of state institutions in accordance with the current situation and announce the continuation of the activities of all state institutions of the Republic of Artsakh located outside the Motherland.
"This is extremely important, especially today, when the authorities of the Republic of Armenia consider the issue of Artsakh closed and are not going to carry out any work towards preserving the subjectivity of Artsakh. Moreover, they consider such a process unacceptable in Armenia, so as not to harm their "peace program" with Azerbaijan. To thwart this plan, they mobilized the entire political field of Armenia.
Various political forces and individuals are also making dangerous attempts to transfer this program into the field of intra-Karabakh struggle, introducing splits with the ensuing insurmountable negative consequences.
Taking into account the above, as well as in order to protect the process and ensure public support, we, together with like-minded people, initiated the creation of a committee to preserve the statehood of Artsakh, which included specialists from various fields," the diplomat emphasized.
He added that the committee is not a political entity, but is called upon to formulate an appropriate agenda, for the implementation of which it is ready to cooperate with all interested individuals and organizations. This is the first urgent step towards the safe return of Artsakh Armenians to their homeland and ensuring practical intervention with the participation of friendly countries.
"Our brothers and sisters cannot and should not return to Artsakh in today's conditions, when their safety is not ensured. Therefore, it is possible to implement this process only with the introduction of new mechanisms, with the presence of a mandate and the presence of international players. Today's bankrupt and anti-people government of Armenia will undoubtedly be overthrown, so we must focus on building the foundations of a new quality and content for the Armenian Fourth Republic. Azerbaijan's resistance can be easily broken in the International Criminal Court by opening a criminal case for its crimes against humanity, relying on jewelry diplomacy and the army behind Armenia, which is becoming stronger every day.
The above will require serious work and time. We are at a turning point in Armenian history and we have no choice but to return the spirit, love, pride, dignity and unity, our Armenian identity, stolen from us over the years. And this road passes through Artsakh again. We are obliged to ensure the revival of Artsakh, thanks to which the creation of a new Armenian statehood will become a reality," Karapetyan noted.