Armenian authorities 'lack strategy' to resolve Karabakh conflict - Giro Manoyan  

 Hripsime Hovhannisyan

The current Armenian authorities lack a proper strategy to reach a final deal over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), according to Giro Manoyan, the political affairs director of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaksutyun (ARF-D).

In an interview with Tert.am, the politician referred particularly to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's recent statement on the issue, noting that his speech in parliament "came to confirm that the issue was repeatedly discussed" with the international mediators at different high-level summits.

"They have found themselves in a place where, by way of rejecting proposals, they have arrived at the thought that the problem here deals with the security of the Artsakh people  - and the status of Artsakh - but there is not even a strategy to properly present the fact to achieve consent also by the other parties. I do not say it is going to be easy. It is necessary to take also the next step,  considering the existing difficulties, i.e. - to initiate a process towards the international recognition of Karabakh, thereby exerting diplomatic pressure upon Azerbaijan. That, certainly, will provoke the mediators' discontent, but these authorities have the opportunity - as long as their popularity has not largely diminished - to take the kind of bold steps, relying on democracy," he said.

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The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 when the Armenian majority of the then autonomous region declared its intention to break away from Azerbaijan. In a referendum held on December 10, 1991 (days before the collapse of the USSR), the population voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence (99.89%). The move was followed by Azerbaijan’s large-scale military operations against Nagorno-Karabakh and seven neighboring regions. The armed violence left around 25,000-30,000 people dead; thousands were internally displaced. The Ceasefire Accord, which went into effect in May 1994, formally put an end to the armed attacks in the conflict zone. Since 1994, the OSCE Minsk Group, a mission co-chaired by France, the United States and Russia, has been spearheading the efforts towards  a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. 

The hostilities escalated to an unprecedented degree in April 2016 into what was later dubbed a Four-Day War. In the early hours of April 1, 2016, Azerbaijan's armed forces launched heavy offensives along the Line of Contact,  provoking large-scale confrontations with the Defense Army of Nagorno-Kkarabakh. The adversary also shelled civilian settlements, particularly the southern and north-eastern regions of Hadrut and Marakert.

A ceasefire was reached on 5 April between the chiefs of the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow. The Nagorno-Karabakh authorities also welcomed the verbal agreement.

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