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June 10, 2004 National Citizens’ Initiative Considers Karabagh Conflict Yerevan—The National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) today convened a specialized policy meeting on “Resolving Karabagh: The Current Stage of the Search.” In view of a history rich in diverse approaches and scenarios, negotiations in various formats, and peace prospects and inclinations, the roundtable brought together competent policy makers, public figures, relevant experts, and academic circles, as well as representatives of the mass media and NGO communities, to examine conflict resolution and its peculiarities in the Karabagh case. What does the decade-old cease-fire promise, is a mutually acceptable solution feasible in the foreseeable future, do the authorities representing Armenian national interests enjoy a broad public mandate in and for peace talks, might an unfavorable arrangement be imposed on the Armenians? These and other issues critical to the future of Karabagh and the entire Armenian nation forged the day’s agenda.
“We assemble today to contemplate the political, strategic, diplomatic, and legal components of Artsakh’s struggle. As always, we will endeavor to assess conflict and its resolution through the tri-prism of state, nation, and citizen and in light of the permanent challenges of identity and security,” Hovannisian said. In a paper on “The Karabagh Challenge: Deadlock or New Departure Point?,” Karabagh presidential adviser Manvel Sargsian focused on the changes in approach to the Karabagh conflict which have created a new situation characterized by the unprecedented activity of European structures. “The European organizations that have taken the initiative from the OSCE Minsk Group seek to find a solution based on humanitarian approaches such as human rights and legitimacy,” he maintained. General Arkadiy Ter-Tadevosian, chairman of the Armenian Defense-Sport Association, covered regional stability and security in his address on “Military Balance as the Principal Guarantee for Peace in the Region.” “To preserve the equilibrium, we need not only to enhance the combat-readiness and mobility of the armed forces to correspond to 21st-century benchmarks, but also to strengthen bilateral politico-military cooperation with all friendly countries, actively cooperating at the same time within the multilateral frameworks of the CIS and NATO’s Partnership for Peace program,” the general summarized.
The first session concluded with an intervention by Aram G. Sargsian, former adviser to the Armenian president and current member of the Armenian parliament’s Standing Commission on Foreign Affairs, on “The Evolution of Scenarios for Regulation of the Karabagh Conflict.” He opined that Armenia should officially recognize the legal authenticity of the documents adopted by Mountainous Karabagh in its secession from Soviet Azerbaijan. “The solution should be moved to the arena of international law, and a legal case obviating Azerbaijani arguments presented, as political solutions lead to gridlock,” he asserted. Law and philosophy professor Alexander Manasian addressed “The Legal Foundations for Solving the Karabagh Question” to open the afternoon session. The Karabagh problem should not be an object of political speculations, he stated. It should instead be under constant state guidance for the working out of a clear-cut and comprehensive program. “Though our position is considerably strong from the viewpoint of international law, it is the Azerbaijani party that always acts as winner on the diplomatic and propaganda fronts, since we lag behind in anti-propaganda activities for want of an integrated conception of general approaches to the problem.” Armen Aghayan, political secretary of the “Protection of Liberated Territories” public organization, offered a special comment on the Arax River area as a matter pivotal for conflict resolution in and around Karabagh. “A successful outcome of the issue’s solution turns on which party will supervise the four regions adjacent to the Arax.”
The remainder of the session was devoted to exchanges of views and policy recommendations among the public figures and policy specialists in attendance. Noteworthy were interventions by former prime minister Khosrov Haroutiunian of the Christian Democratic Union; Hovhannes Hovhannisian of the Liberal Progressive Party; former defense minister Vazgen Manoukian of the National Democratic Union; Grigor Haroutiunian and Ruzanna Khachatrian of the People’s Party of Armenia; Shavarsh Kocharian of the National Democratic Party; former minister of state Hrach Hakobian; Colonel Gegham Haroutiunian of the Republic Party; Giro Manoyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation; Mushegh Lalayan of the Republican Party; Petros Makeyan of the Democratic Fatherland Party; former presidential adviser Levon Zourabian; Vardan Khachatrian, theology professor at Yerevan State University; YSU international affairs lecturer Aram Haroutiunian; Tamar Gevorgian of the United Labor Party; American University international relations professor Khachik Derghoukassian; and many others. ACNIS analyst Hovsep Khurshudian closed the seminar, concentrating in particular on the concern raised during the seminar about a potential Armenia-Azerbaijan strategic imbalance in favor of the latter as a result of its oil trade. “We do not use even the resources we have—not only economic and military resources but also political, juridical, public-relations and, most importantly, democratic ones,” he concluded.
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