Monday, August 11 2014

 

 Mr.
Mailyan, what are the reasons of the recently intensified sabotage attacks that
claim the lives of soldiers on the Armenian-Azerbaijan and Karabakh-Azerbaijani
border? Is it just growing confrontation of the parties to the Karabakh
conflict or global actors are also interested in the current upsurge of
tensions?

 

For several
years already Azerbaijan has been fomenting tensions in the zone in an attempt
to blackmail the regional and extra-regional actors and to force Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh into unilateral concessions. Azeris' last attacks were,
probably, an attempt to find bottlenecks in the defense line of Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh. But once they faced a strong rebuff, their stopped their
sorties and the situation has become much more stable. I don’t think that the
global centers of force are interested in growing tensions in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.

 

 

Some
think the upsurge in tensions on the border is connected with some new
proposals by the international mediators. In other words, by sabotage and
skirmishes the conflicting parties try to strengthen their positions and
demonstrate global actors how fragile is peace ahead of the new phase of the
negotiations. What do you think about such version?

 

There is no
information that the co-chairs have new proposals. At least, my personal
meetings with them gave me no such impression.

 

 

What
do you think of Artsakh’s future status in the light of the different views of
Armenian and Karabakh politician on the issue? Some say Armenia and Artsakh
must exist as two independent Armenians states, while others, for instance, NKR
prime minister, see Armenia and Artsakh as integrated whole.

 

I see
nothing dangerous in the different views of politicians on Artsakh’s future.
What is more important here is that all the politicians of Armenia and Artsakh
want the world community to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh's independence from

Azerbaijan.
Once the world does this, the citizens of the two Armenian states will be able
to decide their future. In view of the current situation in the world,
Nagorno-Karabakh's international recognition seems to the shortest way to its
reunification with Armenia and establishment of a singe national state in the
eastern part of historical Armenia.

 

 

Nevertheless,
Yerevan has repeatedly advocated for the OSCE MG-suggested Madrid Principles…

 

 

The Madrid
Principles are no longer in line with current realities, so, the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
must be resolved on the basis of new proposals.

 

The Soviet
Union collapsed more than 20 years ago, so, we must stop trying to fit current
realities into old concepts. 2008 saw the start of a process when the
independence of some former autonomies was recognized against the will of their
mother countries and this created an absolutely new situation in the
international law.  In this light, the
concept that only republics had the right to become independent after the
collapse of the Soviet Union seems to be no longer appropriate and those
mediating the post-Soviet conflicts must stop applying it to states like
Nagorno-Karabakh. The point is that at the time it was adopted,
Nagorno-Karabakh was already a legal state. 
And it was the use of a selective approach towards such states that
caused most of the post-Soviet conflicts.

 

 

What
do you think of the prospects of the Karabakh conflict’s resolution, given that
in Artsakh they no longer consider the Madrid Principles as a real model for
the conflict’s resolution? This become evident, at least, from the latest
statement by NKR prime minister…

 

 

As for the
last statement by Nagorno-Karabakh's Prime Minister, it was pleasant to learn
that Nagorno-Karabakh prime minister does not consider the Madrid Principles as
an effective model for settling its conflict with Azerbaijan. I am not sure,
however, if this is the official position of the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities,
specifically the president and/or the foreign minister.