Armen Martirosyan: leaving NKR as part of Azerbaijan will be equal to new genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Heritage party board chairman Armen Martirosyan sent a letter to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs to remind them of the genocidal policy Azerbaijan has been implementing against Armenians for many years.



"Heritage stands for recognition of NKR borders as they are fixed in Artsakh's Constitution. Everyone who develops principles for resolution of the Karabakh conflict should know that leaving NKR as a part of Azerbaijan will be equal to a new genocide," Mr. Martirosyan said.



Founded in 2002, Heritage , a National Liberal Party, is national by its roots, liberal in its economic principle, and an advocate of the democratic system of governance and due process for its citizens.  The party's objective is the development of Armenia as a democratic, lawful, and rights-based country that anchors its domestic and foreign policies in the nation's sovereign interest. During the party's Third Congress on May 30, 2005, Raffi K. Hovannisian was elected chairman. The other eight members of the party board were elected by secret vote.



The conflict  between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in 1988 as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from 1991 to 1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan around it (the security zone) remain under the control of Nagorno Karabakh defense army. Armenia and Azerbaijan have since been holding peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.



The OSCE Minsk Group was created in 1992 by the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE, now Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)) to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.



On 6 December 1994, the Budapest Summit decided to establish a co-chairmanship for the process.



Implementing the Budapest decision, the Chairman-in-Office issued on 23 March 1995, the mandate for the Co-Chairmen of the Minsk Process.



The main objectives of the Minsk Process are as follows: Providing an appropriate framework for conflict resolution in the way of assuring the negotiation process supported by the Minsk Group; Obtaining conclusion by the Parties of an agreement on the cessation of the armed conflict in order to permit the convening of the Minsk Conference; Promoting the peace process by deploying OSCE multinational peacekeeping forces.



The Minsk Process can be considered to be successfully concluded if the objectives referred to above are fully met.



The Minsk Group is headed by a Co-Chairmanship consisting of France, Russia and the United States. Furthermore, the Minsk Group also includes the following participating States: Belarus, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Turkey as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan. Current Co-chairmen of the Minsk Group are: Ambassador Bernard Fassier of France, Ambassador Yuri Merzlyakov of the Russian Federation and Ambassador Robert Bradtke of the United States.