David Babayan: International recognition of NKR has been launched

Aysor.am talked to head of Artsakh President’s press office, political scientist David Babayan about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Aysor – President Serzh Sargsyan’s UN speech also focused on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. What do you think we can expect from the international community on the NK problem after the President’s speech?

- The Armenian President from high tribune in UN pointed out the basis of Azerbaijan’s non-constructive policy. It was praiseworthy for him to declare that new states have been created and the conflict should be resolved based on human rights and the right of nations to self-determination.

I think the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will enter a more passive phase in the coming years, due to the changes in the international arena. Because the international community faces a serious dilemma: on the one hand, Azerbaijan persists in its non-constructive policy and tries to push forward its principles, on the other hand, we see that new states appear on the world’s political map and the exercise of the right of nations to self-determination continually gains in scope.

Besides, elections are to be held in Artsakh, Armenia, Azerbaijan and U.S, and then Sochi Olympics is coming. All these processes will somehow either slow down or move to the background the settlement of the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan’s tough position does not enable to achieve breakthrough in this process, either.

Aysor – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed at a party congress that his
predecessor, Vladimir Putin, make another run for the Kremlin. What impact can this have on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

- I do not think that this change can have any impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, with Russia having an interesting system where even Medvedev-Putin relationship cannot affect Russia’s foreign policy. They have also managed to fluently maintain the vector of their foreign policy.

I do not think it will be changed in any way. Russia is interested in peaceful conflict settlement as well as the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

Aysor – The MFA of Georgia had issued a statement which says it does not recognize the NKR local self-government elections as they accept the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and think those elections to be illegal. How would you comment on this step of Georgia?

- It is Georgia’s opinion, it is their business, let them say whatever they want. It does not affect us in anyway because even without that statement Artsakh will continue to build its statehood.

One thing is unclear; if Georgia has declared the democracy to be one of the main directions for its country, how can it not recognize elections of Artsakh. Regardless the fact whether the country is recognized or not election is one of the most important and key methods of expressing people’s will, how can such elections not to be admitted by the international community! However it is their own business, it doesn’t affect us in anyway.

Aysor – What do you think, when the NKR will be internationally recognized and what can promote it?

- The thing is that the international recognition of the NKR has been already launched. The international recognition has started long before, since 1991, it was simply on another layer. It means, we are in a stage of being recognized, various delegations arrive to our country, we develop relations with different countries. This process goes on, even though it is not official.

The statement by Uruguay FM opened the door of a new stage: it means a new stage starts and probably other countries will treat more seriously the process of recognition and not the recognizability of the process. I think it is a long way, we should work hard and get what we want to. It shouldn’t be like in other countries, through crises, it should be done fluently. We should admit this as a very important task which should be realized nationwide, by the Armenia – Artsakh – Diaspora mutual support.