There is no alternative to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Director of the Institute of Diaspora Studies and Integration (Institute of CIS countries) Konstantin Zatulin said the aforementioned in an interview with Noyan Tapan newspaper.
''The Gordian knot already existed in history. Alexander the Great managed to solve the task by cutting it. The issue concerns the method and inputs. I am sure that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, shift to quiet life and status-quo can be achieved,'' Zatulin noted.
In his words, the events of the 80-90s were based on the Nagorno-Karabakh's will to reunite with Armenia or achieve self-determination on another basis, but never as part of Azerbaijan. ''And this will dominates today as well; it is the basis of all the options and models of settlement. It cannot be ignored. The manifested will of the Karabakh people towards the Nagorno-Karabakh self-determination passed through trials and came out on top in the bloody conflict of 1989-1994,'' the Director noted.
According to Zatulin, from the military standpoint, it is apparent that the mountain heights of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by the Armenians allow the republic to feel relatively unalarmed about the safety of the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh itself. ''And as the recent military adventure during this April proves, any attack won't achive significant results, even in conditions of renewing the weapon structure, redeployment, conversion training and other actions,'' he added.
''In my opinion, there is no alternative to the peaceful settlement of the conflict. There is a package of recommendations, which I have presented many time. I think that any sensible politician, striving to adhere to objective positions must stem from today's realia: the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh has been achieved, it has been achived. The recognition is certainly an important issue, but it isn't a mandatory condition for its existence. I think the final formula of the settlement must consider the following circumstances: the first one is the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, the second one being the return of majority of people from the Azerbaijani regions under the jurisdiction of the Azerbaijani Republic, which today constutite the so-called security belt round Nagorno-Karabakh. Of course, the fate of Lachin and Kelbajar corridors, which are also regions round Nagorno-Karabakh, remains disputable. They weren't previously included in its administrative border, but currently serve as security guarantors of the Armenian population, since they link Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia. This is a schematic option of compromise,'' Zatulin said.
Responding to the question on why this compromise hasn't been achieved for so many years, Konstantin Zatulin noted that there is no confidence between the conflict parties, the April developments only worsening that distrust.
''Because the Azerbaijani side, which feels pinched by the results of the 1994 military actions, hasn't lost hope that by military way or as a result of military or diplomatic blackmailing, it will manage to force Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia to actually capitulate, abandoning the idea of the Nagorno-Karabakh independence. I think sensible Azerbaijani politicians realize very well that Nagorno-Karabakh is a self-sufficent state, but because of domsetic policy circcumstances, they do not want, cannot or are not going to to acknowledge this. Hence the standoff in negotiations, which also arose as a result of the fact that Azerbaijan is constantly speaking of a boundless autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan, something which teh Armenian side will never allow. The Armenian position was more flexible, although it is also not free from domestic policy curcumstances, the recent events in Armenia confirming this,'' Zatulin noted.
