STEPANAKERT (Public Radio of Armenia) — According to Artsakh President Spokesman David Babayan, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian touched upon several important issues and voiced legitimate assessments of Azerbaijan’s policy in his address to the UN General Assembly.
“Azerbaijan’s policy is a threat not only to Armenia and Artsakh, but also to the whole civilized world,” said Babayan. He attached special importance to President Sarkisian’s statement that “Artsakh should not enjoy a status and liberty that might be inferior to the one it enjoys today.”
Babayan added that the recognition of the independent status of Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaijan is an important element, which is not subject to any speculation. And regarding the recognition of the right of Artsakh’s people to self-determination by the international community, the spokesperson said “the recognition of countries includes not only legal and moral elements, but also geopolitical ones.”
“Therefore, if we don’t take this into consideration, we start making a more emotional analysis,” said Babayan. “The matter is that the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict is one of the most complex ones, and here we see disagreements among the international community towards the phenomenon of unrecognized states.”
“There has been no common approach on how they should treat such countries. Should they be recognized or not? How much time should they be given? There is no formula for settling the issue,” added the spokesman.
“Kosovo has been recognized by the West. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been recognized by Russia, Northern Cyprus – by Turkey, but we lack a common formula. The formula lies in national interests and geopolitical imperative,” explained Babayan.
As for Artsakh, he said “it’s a de facto recognized country, and de jure recognition is just a matter of time.” However, he stated that the recognition cannot take place at the cost of Artsakh’s security.
Babayan also stressed that there cannot be return to the past borders and the past status. He went on to say that the borders of the former Autonomous Region of Nagorno Karabakh and the borders of 1991 are unable to guarantee security because they will be more vulnerable to aggressors.
“We must speak about the correction of borders. Who says we have to return territories? We also have territorial demands,” concluded Babayan.
Right on. We have territorial demands. Present demands and ancient cultural demands. Artsack all the way to the southern bank of the Khoura River.