Yerevan hinders Azerbaijani-Armenian communities’ meeting

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

While the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unsettled for nearly 25 years, the international community and Azerbaijani government is looking for new ways to end the long-lasting stalemate in the peace talks.

The world community, as well as OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, who were tasked to mediate for the peaceful resolution of the conflict, have repeatedly called for establishing a dialogue between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh to accelerate the negotiations.

However, efforts in this direction haven’t yielded results as the Armenian side with all possible means tries to prevent such a dialogue supporting the current status quo that is unacceptable.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby has recently said “another way to reduce tensions between the sides is to increase people-to-people contacts, especially among the communities of Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“Armenians and Azerbaijanis lived side by side for generations, and we believe that for peace to come, they will need to trust each other once again,” Kirby said.

Despite repeated calls by the international community and Baku to contribute to meaningful dialogue between the two communities as a real confidence-building measure, Yerevan has obstructed meetings between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Hikmet Hajiyev, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson stressed that Armenia impedes the contacts between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Thereby, Armenia denies the right of the Azerbaijani community to return to their historic lands, he told Trend.

“Baku has repeatedly said it is necessary to establish contacts between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region for taking confidence-building measures,” he said emphasizing the importance of these contacts for ensuring co-residence of the communities in the future.

The talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian communities on Nagorno-Karabakh earlier were held in 2007 and 2009.

The representatives of Armenian and Azerbaijani intelligentsia visited Khankendi, Yerevan and Baku on June 28, 2007 upon the initiative of Azerbaijani and Armenian ambassadors to the Russian Federation - Polad Bulbuloglu and Armen Smbatyan.

Azerbaijani intelligentsia's second visit to Nagorno-Karabakh was held in summer 2009.

Since then, no meeting took place between the communities due to Armenia’s rejection of such talks.

Hajiyev noted that after the de-occupation of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions by Armenia, the two communities will again live together within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders.

“Although earlier, there were a number of projects for creating a dialogue between the two communities, Armenia predicted their positive effect on resolving the conflict and started to hinder their implementation,” he underlined.

Hajiyev noted that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, the European Union and other international structures should promote contacts between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs also voiced support to a dialogue between the Armenian and Azerbaijani communities for a resolution to the long-standing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“We encourage dialogue among all those affected by the conflict as an essential part of the peace process, and support programs that bring Armenians and Azerbaijanis together,” the mediators repeatedly underlined in their reports.

MP Rovshan Rzayev, who is a board member of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh Public Union, said the work is underway for meeting of the two communities, but is making no progress because of Armenian political leadership's hindrance.

"We are hopeful for holding the meeting. We are inviting them to take a constructive position,” he said.

Rzayev said that there are also people in Armenia, who want to meet, but people close to the (Serzh) Sargsyan regime oppose the meeting.

Yerevan's opposing the direct contacts between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan showed its reluctance to cooperate seriously on resolution of the conflict.

Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.

Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.

Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.