YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–"Azerbaijan is not ready for a political solution to the Karabakh problem," chief advisor to Levon Ter-Petrosyan Jirair Libaridian said while making a report at the American University of Armenia Monday.
Addressing the conference–"The Transcaucasus Today: Prospects for Regional Integration," Libaridian particularly pointed out that it was unpreparedness that accounted for Azerbaijan’s refusal to hold direct talks with Nagorno-Karabakh just as Russia and Chechnya.
In his report "The Policy of Promises" Libaridian said Azerbaijan was building its foreign policies on the oil factor only. Azerbaijan and other countries keep promising that if Karabakh relinquishes its right to self-determination–then it–as well as Armenia–will greatly profit from oil. "In fact–oil that is represented as a key to the solution of the problem becomes an obstacle in the way of reaching that very solution–since Azerbaijan is trying to use its oil as a means of exerting pressure on Armenia." He described as "tales" the allegations that Azerbaijan’s current democracy could guarantee the rights for the Karabakh people.
Libaridian said Western countries showed a kind of "racist" approach towards the region’s nation. "Can you think of the West standing by if–say–it should occur to Canada to bombard or shell Quebec?" he queried.
Libaridian stressed that favoring the principle of territorial integrity over that of self-determination of nations–politicians make not a legal choice–but a political one. He also reminded that the world community had put up with the fact that some states decided on a political "divorce."
The chief advisor opined that new–non-standard decisions were needed to settle the Karabakh problem. "The world community should be making such offers to Nagorno-Karabakh so that the Republic wouldn’t refuse them," he said.
