INTEGRITY AND DETERMINATION - ALL ABOUT THE NATION
15-06-2006 18:30:00 | USA | Articles and Analyses
by Raffi K. Hovannisian
The Moscow Times, June 14, 2006, Issue 3431
With the purpose of keeping people informed, newspapers can
and should publish, side by side or in sequence, comment pieces
offering points and counterpoints concerning conflict situations
that affect peace and security.
At some juncture, however, partisan polemics must give way
to the consideration of hard facts in order to resolve
contemporary divides inherited from the ebb and flow of history.
The truth is often harsh and can cause pain to both the
messenger and recipient.
None of us -- Armenians, Azeris, Turks -- can boast a
spotless register of state-building, mutual respect for human
rights, or even regard for the liberty and dignity of our own
citizens. We must do better in having our deeds match our words
both individually and in concert.
With regard to Nagorno-Karabakh, understanding the
following points is vital:
- In no way discounting Azeri cultural affinities,
Nagorno-Karabakh has been historically and will be in modern
times part of the Armenian patrimony. Its forcible inclusion by
Stalin in Soviet Azerbaijan had, and continues to have, no
juridical basis under international law. For those who might
argue that it does, then so should Nagorno-Karabakh's response
to the aggression by Azeri forces, in the form of its 1991
referendum on independence from Soviet Azerbaijan. The
referendum was held not only according to universal principles
of self-determination and other standards of international
practice, but also pursuant to the Soviet Constitution and
relevant law on secession.
The question at issue is not the indisputable right of
today's Azerbaijan to its territorial integrity, but
specifically the lawful frontiers of that integrity.
Nagorno-Karabakh's legitimate quest for decolonization and for
sovereign control of its own identity, security and destiny is
anchored both in fact and in law. Whether acknowledged or not,
it is a precedent established in East Timor, Montenegro and
other places yet to come and requires no further foundation.
- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's
1992 mediation mandate and the tripartite 1994 ceasefire bear
witness, no matter how or how many times you slice it, to the
fact that there can be no enduring settlement to the conflict
without the full-fledged participation of the republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh. That is the bottom line. For its own reasons,
the Azerbaijani government in Baku can whip up militant
xenophobia, raze the medieval Armenian cemetery at Julfa to the
ground and then try with a straight face to deny it. But if it
ever means to negotiate, it has to talk to the Nagorno-Karabakh
capital of Stepanakert just as much as the Armenian capital of
Yerevan.
- No comprehensive solution on Nagorno-Karabakh will ever
be achieved without a synchronized normalization of the
Turkish-Armenian relationship based on an honest and brave
assessment of history and its contemporary consequences. We
cannot build a peaceful and prosperous region, where all
political actors are on the same page with regard to security
and cooperation, by seeking an escape hatch from the record of
genocide and its derivative legacy, however sensitive or
inconvenient dealing with this history may be. We're all grown
men and women. It's time to face the music.
- Finally, we will be unable to forge a meaningful
reconciliation -- one that touches the lives of all of the
region's nations and people -- without the victory of democracy
and rule of law in every jurisdiction, whether considered
separately or taken together. There can be no peace, security,
realization of national interests or international partnership
where tyranny triumphs over liberty and where semi-feudal,
post-Soviet verticals of power prejudice the future of
forward-looking generations in Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh,
Armenia, Turkey, and the world beyond.
The promise of freedom, justice and equity belongs to all
of us, but the long road to its fulfillment must start at home.
--- Raffi K. Hovannisian is the former foreign minister of
Armenia and director of the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies.