Azeri self-deception can undermine Karabakh process

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia's Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian praised the states which did not support the Azerbaijani resolution on Karabakh.

"This is a non-binding, or consultative pronouncement by the General Assembly. I don't think it will have an affect the process, unless Azerbaijan is engaged not just in deception but self-deception," the Minister said.



"It was unnecessary, ill-timed, mean-spirited, both as a process and a product. If Azeris expect to use this for anything other than their domestic purposes, if they have convinced themselves that the international community truly supports the one-sided desires they had enumerated in the text of this resolution, then this will cause serious problems in the negotiations. One thing must be clear for Azerbaijan - that no amount of resolutions will make Nagorno Karabakh deviate from its path of self-determination," he emphasized.



"Show me one example in history when a conflict has been resolved by the passage of a document by an international organization or by third countries. This has never happened and is not going to happen now. In 1948, the UN General Assembly resolution to partition Palestine didn't solve anything. Recently, the Security Council resolution on Kosovo didn't manage to bring the sides together in a meaningful way either."



"I remember Lisbon where the OSCE Chairman-in-Office made a statement about Nagorno Karabakh. Azeri joy knew no limits then. It took years for Azerbaijan to understand that the document had no value," the Minister noted.



By insisting on this non-binding, non-collective statement, Azerbaijan proved that it wants to retreat from the Minsk Group process, and therefore from the content of the document on the table. This country is ready to negotiate what it wants, but not to compromise," Minister Oskanian said in an interview with Azdak Beirut-based newspaper.