Wednesday, July 30 2014

The interests and viewpoints of Stepanakert do not necessarily coincide with those of Yerevan and in a number of cases they are absolutely different, Deputy Chairman of Heritage Party Armen Martirosyan told ArmInfo when commenting on the latest statement of Nagorno-Karabakh Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan.    

To recall, during an online press conference NKR Prime Minister Ara Harutyunyan officially claimed for the first time that even if Nagorno-Karabakh becomes a participant in the negotiations again, the Madrid Principles will be unacceptable to Stepanakert. "I do not think that if Artsakh becomes a party to the talks, the people or leadership of Artsakh will positively respond to the discussions around the principles", said Harutyunyan. When commenting on possible cession of the seven districts to Azerbaijan, the NKR Prime Minister said, "The liberated territories are Artsakh and there can be no other point of view".

"Artsakh has been against the Madrid Principles for a long time. Even the parliamentary factions of the NKR National Assembly made official statements on this. I think discrepancies between the residents of Karabakh and Armenia are possible at least because the first blows in the 1991-94 war were delivered on Karabakh. I am convinced the Armenians of Karabakh should decide what matters more to them in terms of security. Therefore, one cannot speak of a single viewpoint of Yerevan and Stepanakert", stressed the politician. 

He also emphasized that not everybody in Armenia agrees to the viewpoint of the authorities in the context of the country's foreign policy, in particular, the expediency of using the Madrid principles. He said that many times the Heritage party came forward against these principles, saying about the non-legitimateness of the Armenian authorities ready to agree to the Karabakh conflict settlement on the basis of the Madrid principles. "The latest presidential election 2013 were fully falsified and the people did not trust in their results. And the president  determines foreign policy in Armenia", -he said. 

The oppositionist recalled that the situation around Ukraine has demonstrated once again the true cost of the so-called international security guarantees. "In particular, 20 years ago in the Treaty on Kiev's joining the non-nuclear countries, Russia, the USA and the Great Britain in fact came forward as the guarantors of territorial integrity of Ukraine. And today we see how all of them fulfill their obligations. So, against such a background, the territories of Artsakh and its convenient geographical location are the best guarantees of its security", - Martirosyan concluded.

The OSCE Minsk Group (represented by Russian, U.S. and French Co-Chairs) has been engaged in the Karabakh peace process since 1992.  The Madrid Principles were suggested by the OSCE Minsk Group in 2007 and updated in 2009.