Sarsang reservoir not joint property, says Karabakh official

By raising the problem of the Sarsang reservoir, Azerbaijan seeks to more speculate on the issue rather than secure water supply for its own regions, says a spokesperson for the Nagorno-Karabakh president.

Speaking to Tert.am, David Babayan said he sees the country’s officials bargaining over the question at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) instead of accepting Karabakh’s proposal for a dialogue (over the joint management of water resources).

It comes after the PACE Bureau made a decision to consider the Azerbaijani initiative regarding the reservoir’s future use. A special rapporteur was assigned for preparing a report (that will probably be on the agenda of the assembly’s next session).

The authors of the initiative claim that the population of Azerbaijan’s border zones has been intentionally deprived of water. For many years - especially in the spring and summer seasons - those regions have received irrigation supply from the reservoir located on Tartar river (Nagorno-Karabakh’s Martakert region). The PACE has now proposed conducting a probe and adopting a corresponding resolution that will call upon the international community to take urgent measures towards resolving the problem.

Babayan warns Azerbaijan against making demands over the reservoir (which he insists is not a joint property).

“It is important to consider the existing nuances. We have never announced that we are ready to jointly use the reservoir; it is not shared property. We have expressed our readiness to make such a proposal as a sign of good will and [an attempt] to build confidence in the conflict zone, as well as a start of a mutually beneficial economic cooperation,” he said, describing the Armenian side's proposal as a constructive effort stemming from a humanistic attitude.

Asked what the international community can do in the present circumstances, Babayan said he thinks that its efforts should be directed to calls for respecting human rights. “What can the international community say? We have made a proposal which Azerbaijan rejects. So what can we do? But the international community has to first of all urge the Azerbaijani authorities to respect elementary human right on its own territory instead of making the issue a subject of speculations by the Aliyev clan. It has to realize that Azerbaijan must undertake steps towards making the water accessible to its own citizens,” he added.

Babayan said he thinks that the Azerbaijani authorities seek in this way to justify their failures. “This is yet another non-constructive position by Azerbaijan. They do not want to make that step, but in order to put excuses to their own people, they present such arguments,” he noted.