Iravunq: Artsakh Security Council chief rules out military conflict settlement option

In an interview with the paper, the secretary of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Security Council addressed the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict and the existing defense-related concerns, elaborating also on the domestic political situation in Armenia.

Major General Vitaly Balasanyan ruled out any scenario of a military settlement, attributing the failures in the recent war to a fragile diplomacy.

“What happened was the aftermath of incorrectly pursued negotiations’”

Mr Balasanyan, what foreign relations agenda is Artsakh pursuing today and what are the priorities?

If you mean the negotiation process per se, they are not in place at the moment. After the entry into effect of the November 9 statement on temporary ceasefire, the Russian Federation peacekeeping forces are practically carrying out service in the Artsakh Republic. There isn’t any political subject or political actor at the moment. And the OSCE Minsk Group too, has temporarily suspended its activity. We now have to wait until the OSCE Minsk Group embarks on renewed actions.

We have always been willingly supportive to negotiations, because any poor negotiations as such are much better than even the most minor clashes. What happened was the aftermath of incorrectly pursued neogitaitons. And the Republic of Azerbaijan took advantage of that in collaboration with Turkey. We have seen, in the past couple of days, the Azerbaijani political leadership’s statements reflecting a refusal to abide by their commitments. Azerbaijan’s pursues the rhetoric of a winner, saying “We do not have to negotiate with anyone”, “Artsakh is Azerbaijan and that’s it” … But we also saw that neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan managed to reach a military solution. We are more than confident that the Karabakh issue has never been and will never be resolved through military actions.

[Azerbaijni President Ilham] Aliyev says there is no Artsakh issue as such. What settlement perspectives do you see in that situation?

We do not accept Aliyev’s statement so seriouly, because what the “winning” country’s leadership speak of – together with its brother, Turkey – is  too far from reality indeed.