Wednesday, March 22 2023 12:30

ArmInfo.Armenia's Premier Nikol Pashinyan, who once again found himself in difficult situation under Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's pressure, has now decided  to raise the issue of forcibly displaced Artsakh Armenians - as  usual, too late, stated Levon Zurabyan, Vice-Chairman of the Armenian  National Congress (ANC). 

In this context he recalled Point 7 of the Trilateral Statement of  November 9, 2020, which reads: 

"Internally displaced persons and refugees shall return to the  territory of Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent regions under the control  of the Agency of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees."

"And now Armenia's authorities, with a 2-year delay, have recalled  that this point has unilaterally been implemented in the case of  Azerbaijani refugees, with none of the displaced Artsakh Armenians  returned to their homeland. The question is: why has not this issue  been raised for such a long period, and Armenia's authorities have  now focused on it? The answer to the first part of this question is  easy: Pashinyan's unwillingness to provoke Aliyev with 'unnecessary'  questions," he said.  

President Aliyev, inspired by Pashinyan's "mental incompetence,"  recently raised the issue of returning Azerbaijani refugees to  Armenia and is already issuing threats if this demand is not  satisfied.  

"The masterminds behind this new propaganda think that by raising  this issue they have embarrassed Azerbaijan and Russia, both of which  signed the Trilateral Statement but have failed to respect this  point.  But they cannot understand Armenia's authorities are even  more embarrassed, as they their behavior has turned out to be that of  a 'nail-head'. In fact, they are perfectly aware that they are  raising the issue in a way that would enable them to shift the  responsibility for the disgraceful failure unto the former  authorities," Mr Zurabyan said.

He is also critical of the ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan, who  referred to a letter by the refugees from Artsakh and raised the  issue of implementing Point 7 of the Trilateral Statement. 

"Of course, no criticism against Nikol Pashinyan, who signed the  Statement but has not done anything to implement it. And it is the  former authorities that are to blame. Here is what Ms Kharatyan said:  'No Armenian authorities were willing or capable - or on purpose - to  put the issue of refugees on the special agenda. For 32 years, during  all the negotiations over Artsakh, a representative of Azerbaijani  internally displaced people, refugees, was always present because it  is their fate, and those people were negotiators, not observers. Has  the problem of any refugees in Armenia been ever discussed outside  Armenia? 32 years have passed. I think we have committed a crime  against those people'," Mr Zurabyan said. 

As regards Ms Kharatyan's defending Armenian refugees from the  Armenian authorities' "criminal" policy against displaced refugees,  he accused her of lying. 

According to him, since gaining independence Armenia has been  consistent in dealing with the issue of Armenian refugees at all the  negotiations. 

"In particular, Point 5 of the document on phased settlement of the  1997 Karabakh conflict dealt with the return of all refugees and  displaced persons, including those 'displaced after 1987 as a result  of the conflict and tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan.' Point 11  dealt with the Shaumyan problem. In the event of the implementation  of the agreement, the return of Azerbaijanis to the territory of the  Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, as well as the Lachin region, and  then the cities of Shushi and Lachin controlled by Artsakh was not  planned. By the way, let me remind you once again that Azerbaijan  gave its official consent to that settlement plan," Mr Zurabyan said. 

He stressed that no "Azerbaijani representative of internally  displaced persons" or "representative of Azerbaijani refugees" ever  attended the negotiations, because "the resolution of the 1992  Helsinki Meeting of OSCE Foreign Ministers provided that the status  of Nagorno-Karabakh would be decided at a conference of the Minsk  Group countries, with 'elected and other representatives of  Nagorno-Karabakh' expected to be invited to. There were some  discussions not only with the elected authorities of Nagorno-  Karabakh, but also with representatives of the Azerbaijani community  of Nagorno-Karabakh, the former mayor of Shushi, Mr Bayramov," he  said. In this context, Zurabyan recalled that in 1994, at the OSCE  Budapest Summit, a resolution was adopted definitively recognizing  Armenia, Azerbaijan and Nagorno- Karabakh as full and equal parties  to the conflict and negotiations, and not a single representative of  the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh has since ever  participated in any negotiations to resolve the conflict.

"So we are once again dealing with propaganda lies of this  government. Such a shameful behavior of official propaganda should be  condemned as shifting the responsibility for Pashinyan's criminal  failures unto others and distorting historical facts. I consider it  my duty to convey all this to our society. The sooner we understand  that today Armenia is ruled by people whose only job is to avoid  responsibility for their catastrophic mistakes and blame others the  sooner we can put the country on the right track," Zurabyan said.