July 15, 2009

Heritage’s Statement on the Karabagh Peace Talks

Dear compatriots:

For many years, the true essence of the “Karabagh” problem was centered on Azerbaijan’s territorial ambitions toward Artsakh. Even though the US, Russian, and French presidents’ 10 July 2009 statement failed to expose the actual, and renewed, document which must be put on the basis for the resolution of the Karabagh problem, and which contains the “Madrid Principles,” the disclosed points already provide sufficient grounds to assert that they are attempting to jeopardize the liberty and sovereignty that was acquired at the price of the heroic struggle and indescribable deprivation by Artsakh, all Armenians and, first and foremost, by the Artsakh Armenians. As a result of the myopic policy and lack of domestic legitimacy, the Karabagh problem’s regulation process has reached a point that has no relation, whatsoever, with the protection of the Armenian national interests, and, so, and on numerous occasions, the Heritage Party had raised an alarm to that effect. In that regard, Heritage had immediately condemned the Meiendorf Declaration, which the Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Russian presidents had signed in Moscow, on 2 November 2008. This “Declaration” contained a commitment to resolve the Karabagh issue in the framework of the Madrid Principles, which, at the time, were “unknown” to the people, but, in reality, they were very well known to the authorities.

In consideration of these facts, the Heritage Party, hereby,

• maintains its position that Azerbaijan—a country that has launched a war against the people of Artsakh, during which, and even prior, has deported the Armenian population from its territory by way of ethnic cleansing; a country that still occupies the Shahumian region and Getashen subregion, as well as some parts of the Martakert and Martuni regions of the Artsakh Republic; a country that has left Nakhichevan without its Armenian population and has destroyed the Armenian cultural treasures located in that territory and throughout Azerbaijan; and, finally, a country that has carried out the pogroms of the Armenians living in Sumgait, Kirovabad, and Baku—cannot be the guarantor of the security of the people of Artsakh; 
• upholds its view that Armenia’s National Assembly and, subsequently, the entire world community need to immediately recognize the independence of the Mountainous Karabagh Republic (MKR). This recognition is in line with the fundamental precepts of international law, and is based on the people’s rights for self-determination and decolonization alike, which are the main security guarantees for the Artsakh Armenians. The MKR’s rights for self-determination and decolonization, which were legally carried out, and the resultant independent statehood, occasionally were violated both by Azerbaijan and the international community. Sadly, the Armenian authorities’ continuing impersonal and reactive policy, too, has contributed to this line of attack;
• states that it considers Artsakh to be an independent state, hence it will exert all efforts so that the MKR’s independence is recognized by Armenia, in the first place, and then by the international community. The Armenian National Assembly, however, ruled out even the discussion of this matter, while the MKR’s leadership did not respond to that initiative, at all. So as to make the MKR’s independence question become a formal issue, Heritage’s Executive Board will examine, in its next session, the matter of the MKR’s recognition by the party. We also call upon all interested political parties and NGOs to likewise consider the MKR’s recognition issue and, in their future actions, to be guided by their relevant decision; 
• reaffirms its position, which it had stated several months ago, that any solution concerning demarcation must exclusively be mutual and equivalent, and the return of the refugees should be multifaceted and comprehensive and must include the entire Azerbaijan, Flatland Artsakh, and Nakhichevan; and
• still agrees with the mediators’ and the international organizations’ view that the societies of Mountainous Karabagh, Armenia and Azerbaijan themselves, which are the parties to the Karabagh conflict, must find the pacific ways to resolve this problem, and all other countries, which are helping the sides to that end, solely can be the mediators and the guarantors for the implementation of the accords.  

Dear Artsakh Armenians:

We, the members of the Heritage Party, state that the disclosed Madrid Principles are unacceptable for the Armenian people and can never be brought to fruition. No one in the world has the right to carry out violations against your God-given right for liberty and sovereignty, which you and all Armenians have honorably and valiantly acquired and defended during the war that Azerbaijan had forced upon you. We, therefore, reconfirm our readiness to support this right of yours, to our utmost.

Dear compatriots:

Irrespective of the future developments in Armenia, the Diaspora and in Artsakh, and relating to the resolution of this problem, we call upon you to still firmly stand on your homeland, which is the symbol of Armenian freedom. And, for the sake of the Artsakh Republic’s international recognition, the Heritage Party will continue to make use of all its political capacity.

15 July 2009
Yerevan