Nagorno-Karabakh’s ‘water proposal’ to Azerbaijan’s ‘tough geopolitics’

In an interview with Tert.am, a spokesperson for the Nagorno-Karabakh president commented on the OSCE Minsk Group’s American co-chair’s recent remark on the joint use of water resources.

David Babayan said he thinks that James Warlick’s proposal for sharing the Sarsgang reservoir’s resources between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan is an expression of good will by the American diplomat.

“There is, of course, a manifestation of good will, but we also see an economic component. We are not a charity-maker to gratuitously offer our product to a state which treats us in a hostile way, to say the least. But we understand we are neighbors, so we have to co-exist as independent states. That is why we say, ‘let us establish a mutually beneficial cooperation for the beginning’. I repeat again that this cannot be a joint use; just a mutually beneficial cooperation,” he noted.

Asked whether he knows any precedents of such cooperation between conflicting countries, Babayan replied, “There are precedents of course, but most of them were never realized. There is, for example, the Dead Sea precedent. A ‘Peace Channel’ was built, so to say, to ensure the water supply to Palestine, Israel and Jordan from the Red Sea or the Mediterranean, but there are problems there too. Anyway, the proposal is a practical one. We can supply them with water in return for something: oil, for example. Hence this is an expression of good will on mutually beneficial terms, to speak economically. But it can never be a unilateral step with no economic justification.”

Asked whether Nagorno-Karabakh is the first to react to Ambassador Warlick's statement, Babayan said the country had many times before voiced such a proposal. “The official Stepanakert made this kind of proposal in 1998-1999, so all the presidents are aware of it. They all the time raise the question during talks,” he noted.

Babayan said an agreement on Azerbaijan’s possible water share from the reservoir can be reached only as a result of negotiations. “I will say only one thing: Azerbaijan pursued very tough policies, hydrogeopolitics. When Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] was still an autonomous region, it deprived it of [the right] to use the water resources. It built, for example, dams on the rivers of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, but they were located beyond our borders. Hence, we weren’t able to use those rivers. Sarsang is the only [reservoir] built on the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, because there was no other geopolitical option. But the Sarsang waters used to irrigate lands with an area of 128,000 hectares, of which only 10,000-15,000 hectares were for Artsakh. So the rest went to Azerbaijan which controlled the management network. They do not now get water of course, because we use Sarsang for our own needs. Sarsang has to be used for hydropower in the first place and irrigation - in the second. We cannot use it for irrigation yet, as the networks have remained there. Activities are now underway for restoring the system completely . So Azerbaijan still has time to agree, because after we restore the water distribution networks, we will no longer need an economic cooperation with Azerbaijan,” he added.

Asked whether Nagorno-Karabakh makes a full use of the reservoir’s water resources, Babayan answered that they have such a chance only during the winter months. “Yes, we make a full use of it for the energy production, but we are forced to use it in winter, as the water also goes to Azerbaijan while the power is being generated. So we use in winter, and they cannot use it in summer,” he explained.