T. Zulfugarov: To Eliminate Secrecy of Talks on Karabakh

The interpretation by the Foreign Minister of Armenia of the results of the St. Petersburg meeting of the Presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia is not serious. The three Presidents did not come together to discuss only the issues of strengthening the ceasefire. In an interview with the program Chetin Sual of the news agency Turan this was said by the former head of the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan Tofig Zulfugarov, commenting on the results of the meeting.

Recall that Nalbandian has denied the words of the deputy head of the Administration of the President of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov that an agreement was reached on a phased settlement of the conflict.

"To say that the three Presidents only gathered to discuss the extension of the mandate of Andrzej Kasprzyk is not serious," said Zulfugarov.

He is convinced that in the negotiations they discussed issues of political settlement. In this sense, it is quite logical to discuss a phased option.

"The history of the settlement is long and a new formula or scheme cannot be invented," said Zulfugarov, recalling the words of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that all the proposals are already on the table.

"In fact, there are Madrid principles and their various modifications, for example, Kazan Formula, etc." In this sense, the statement by Novruz Mammadov is not new, but the statement by Nalbandian is surprising," Zulfugarov said.

According to him, the ruling elite of Armenia does not want to accept the obvious facts, and therefore it is necessary to partially lift the secrecy of the negotiation process.

"This conflict is not between Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan. Resolution of the conflict must be based on peoples' opinions. To do this, they need to be informed, and a closed character only tightens the conflict," the Ex-minister said.

What is the difference and similarity of the phased and batch-type resolution of the conflict?

In answering this question, Zulfugarov said that in fact, phased and package options should be implemented gradually.

In this case the Armenian version of the package option is radically different from the version offered by the co-chairs. The co-chairs say the occupied territories should be liberated. And the Armenians believe that before the liberation of the territories Azerbaijan should recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, and there should be international guarantees. Armenians think that this may be an instantaneous process. However, the co-chairs are of the opinion that the status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be determined by the Minsk Conference (it was to be convened in 1992 – Turan’s note). Prior to this, it is necessary to eliminate the consequences of military operations, which is the liberation of the occupied territories, return of refugees and others. Only after this the NK status can be solved.

Therefore, the statement by Nalbandian is nothing more than political speculation, continued Zulfugarov. It is the closed character of the process that allows the Armenian side to spread biased information about the content of the negotiations.

"I do not think that Azerbaijan should continue to maintain secrecy," said Zulfugarov.

He also called far-fetched allegations about the contradictions between the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination of peoples. This "contradiction" is artificially invented.

The OSCE Lisbon Summit (1996) clearly stated that the Armenians could gain independence within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

In world practice, there are many examples where self-determination does not lead to the creation of a separate state.

For example, the Tatars, many times exceeding the number of Karabakh Armenians, self-determined as a part of Russia in the form of a federation subject.

"Why should Armenians not self-determine like that, and why should they create another state?" said the Ex-minister.

Asked whether Azerbaijan can offer concrete models for self-management of the Armenians on the example of South Tyrol or the Åland Islands, Zulfugarov noted that such proposals were prepared in the Foreign Ministry on Heydar Aliyev’s orders at the time.

However, the Armenian side torpedoed these processes.

Azerbaijan is now ready to provide self-determination to NK, but the status should be decided at the Minsk conference after eliminating the effects of the military conflict.

Over the past 10-15 years, Azerbaijan spent about 20 billion dollars on defense and equipped its army with modern weapons. Even one of the former warlords, separatist Samvel Babayan acknowledged that the missile defense system created by Azerbaijan is one of the most modern ones and Baku has a system to intercept missiles at its disposal. How can the Armenians create a military balance with Azerbaijan, if they do not have even 200 million USD to procure a small shipment of arms?

In addition, Armenia's population is less than 2 million people, and Azerbaijan is close to 10 million. "Who in this situation would admit surrender and give Karabakh to the Armenians?" Zulfugarov said.

 "The Armenian leadership should take responsibility and tell the truth to the people. They should say that they have quarreled with their neighbor, who is much stronger than they are, and they have no prospects for development,” Zulfugarov said. Therefore, either Armenia will take the right path, or war will be inevitable, he said. -B06-