STEPANAKERT. – Nagorno-Karabakh may become a part of Azerbaijan only due to full-scale war and ethnic cleansings, head of Yerevan State Linguistic University Suren Zolyan said on Friday at the international scientific conference in Stepnakert.
Conflicts in the South Caucasus are considered as key factors hampering development of the region. Not only the conflicts, but approaches to their solution are frozen, he said.
“Everything what was told so far was not effective, while change in regional situation is not taken into account, in particular, recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is ignored. In parallel, Azerbaijan continues military build-up, which is similar to a budget of war times,” Zolyan said.
He stressed that the wall around Karabakh, which Azerbaijan intends to build, testifies to its unwillingness to reasonable cooperation with Karabakh.
“Despite many other differences in case of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Kosovo the mediators on Karabakh continue to show rare unanimity claiming they cannot serve a precedent for Karabakh,” the Chancellor said.
In this context, Zolyan believes the settlement lies in negotiations, without mediators. Integration problem should not be settled without tackling cooperation problems. He pointed out implementation of joint projects between Armenia-Georgia, Georgia-Azerbaijan, as well as possible cooperation of an Assembly between local and regional authorities, possibility to establish similar territorial structures, excluding political and economic issues from the agenda.
Touching upon the political status of Karabakh, Zolyan said that he would like to address the West: “What would happen if member states of Yugoslavia realized their right to self-determination within not even Yugoslavia but Serbia?” The answer is clear, however, it is unclear why it cannot be applied for Karabakh as well. Moreover, exclusion Karabakh from negotiation processes makes the whole process even more unclear.
Karabakh participation in negotiations is important, but it should not be an end to itself. Stability in Karabakh is not because of but in spite of mediators’ efforts, he concluded.
