Armenian Dissidents on Peacekeeping Mission in Baku

A press conference was held by three Armenian dissidents Vahe Avetyan, Vahan Martirosyan and Susanna Jaghinyan in Baku on November 9. The activists arrived in Azerbaijan on a peacekeeping mission.

Yesterday they took part in a peace conference and issued a joint statement with the Azerbaijani human rights activists, calling on the people and the Presidents to reconciliation.

Leading the press conference, the head of the NGO Forum Rauf Zeyni congratulated the journalists on the Day of the State Flag and wished hoisting of the national flag of Azerbaijan in Karabakh’s capital Khankendi (Stepanakert is the Armenian name).

“I appeal to the President of Azerbaijan with a call to demonstrate wisdom and to stop the war, because on the other side there are some irresponsible politicians, President Sargsyan, who does not care about his citizens,” said Susana Jaghinyan.

According to her, in Armenia many people think the same. “My visit is intended to make a contribution to a peaceful solution to the issue. Those children should not be killed; they are only 20 years old. Despite all the obstacles that our government creates, we must seek peace.”

She said the power in Armenia really commits a real genocide of the Armenian people.

The Karabakh conflict has only given tears and pain and nothing else to the Karabakh people, she said, explaining her departure from Armenia, where she was declared dead and deprived of the passport.

Vahan Martirosyan, who on the eve had a meeting with mixed Azerbaijani-Armenian families, said the irresponsible statement of the former Armenian President Robert Kocharyan on the genetic incompatibility of Azerbaijanis and Armenians is nothing but a manifestation of fascism: “Unfortunately, in Armenia there is fascist propaganda by the illegitimate Armenian authorities, who have created a myth of a combat outpost with the Islamic world and Turkey and produce the idea so far.”

Susanna Jaghinyan expressed the idea that the more people will think about peace from both sides, the faster it will become a reality.

According to Martirosyan, everything can change, if a democratically elected government comes to power in Armenia. “Now the power is in the hands of the Karabakh clan, and we are confident that they will go along with this problem forever and The Hague Tribunal awaits them.”

Susanna Jaghinyan sees the solution to the settlement of the Karabakh conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, where the neutral status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be presented, and where the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities will live together: “The two nations have to co-exist and this is what we have to achieve.”

Martirosyan said the Armenian Diaspora have enough influential people who stand for peace with Azerbaijan. He named the examples of Armen Dzhigarkhanyan and others.

He also noted the fact that the Armenian and Azerbaijani human rights activists came together for the first time in Baku at a conference and issued a joint statement. “We are trying to raise the public in both countries,” he said about the initiative.

In turn Rauf Zeyni said the Azerbaijani side is ready to participate in such a conference in Yerevan, if the Armenian authorities guarantee the security of the participants of the meeting.

 Vahe Avetyan expressed the hope that the Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia will come back one day. “We'll be back together. And that day will come.”

He also stressed that he considers his visit in Baku to the monument for the killed residents of the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly in Nagorno-Karabakh as a pilgrimage and penance for the crime committed by the Armenians.

As a member of the organization of the South Caucasus peace initiatives, Asetyan noted that his visit to Baku is a private initiative. “But I see that a fundamental base of the conflict settlement was formed yesterday at the conference, and we will continue to work on. If the conference cannot take place in Armenia, we will hold it in Georgia or Azerbaijan and we will become more and more.”

Avetyan also noted that without respect for the principles of international law, it is impossible to make peace: “It is impossible not to respect the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan to establish peace. We should put at the same table the people of Karabakh – both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, and they will be able to agree, as they have a lot in common.”

According to him, non-governmental organizations at this stage should create a popular base for peace, and everything else will be done by the politicians.

“We Armenian peacekeepers have repeatedly said that we respect the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. My visit is an act of public diplomacy. All the steps taken so far have been taken through people's diplomacy, not by politics.”