OSCE Minsk Group’s “non-existence” could lead to loss of life of 130,000 people – Member of Parliament Taguhi Tovmasyan
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YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. The Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and Public Affairs of Armenia Taguhi Tovmasyan (opposition Pativ Unem caucus) says she believes that there is still resource to force Azerbaijan to continue the talks over Artsakh within the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, and Azerbaijan not being inclined to work with Armenia in this matter is of little importance.
When asked about the possibility of direct talks between Stepanakert and Baku, Tovmasyan said she can’t imagine how that would work.
“We can’t leave the people of Artsakh to the whim of luck, what would they negotiate with Azerbaijan, with what resources would they negotiate? If we are saying that Artsakh is an unrecognized republic, how do we imagine their status in relations with international partners? Thus, first of all, it is necessary to recognize Artsakh, it must have a legal status in order to be able to sit around the negotiations table. I believe that Armenia is obliged to represent the interests of Artsakh, to [support] Artsakh,” Tovmasyan said at a press briefing.
Tovmasyan also spoke about the Armenian foreign ministry’s statement which said that the human rights and security issue of Nagorno Karabakh is of crucial importance for Armenia, and that this is being voiced at all meetings, including with international partners, however Azerbaijan is not inclined to discuss this matter with Armenia.
The MP said that they must remind that the OSCE Minsk Group – launched to deal with the settlement of the Artsakh conflict – still exists.
“This group still exists, de-jure. We must activate it, ask and beg for that group’s existence to again become de-facto, and expect activity from them, explain to them that their “non-existence” could lead to the loss of life of 120-130 thousand people. If human values and rights have any meaning for them they ought to continue implementing their commitment. And Azerbaijan not being inclined has little importance in this case because before that Azerbaijan was again not inclined to go for reasonable solutions in any issue, but nevertheless the work was continuing in the Minsk Group. And we have the resources to force the resumption of the work within the framework of this group,” Tovmasyan said.
She added that it is unequivocal that Artsakh has no future as part of Azerbaijan and imagining it as part of Azerbaijan would mean genocide for the Armenians, no Armenian of Artsakh can live safely, with protected rights as part of Azerbaijan.
Tovmasyan said the entire world must realize that if the self-determination in the case of Kosovo was understandable for the world, then why shouldn’t Artsakh’s self-determination be understandable?