Parliament Speaker says making return of Karabakh population a state objective could generate conflict
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Formulating the return of the population of Karabakh as a state objective would mean reviving the logic of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, National Assembly Speaker Ruben Rubinyan said during a parliamentary session, responding to remarks by MPs from the Armenia faction.
Rubinyan was responding to MP Kristine Vardanyan’s observation that the signed document did not address the root causes of the conflict.
“Let us discuss what the causes of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict are. I want to remind you that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict did not begin in 1988. I believe there is a consensus among historians that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which lasted until August 8 of last year, began in 1905. At the time, these were called the Armenian-Tatar clashes,” Rubinyan said.
According to Rubinyan, one of the main causes of the conflict was the mixed settlement of Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the same geographical area. To support his argument, Rubinyan cited the examples of Bosnia, Cyprus, Kosovo and North Macedonia, saying that conflicts between small and medium-sized nations often arise when different ethnic groups live together in the same territory.
As a second cause, the National Assembly Speaker pointed to the influence of empires in the region. “It is no coincidence that this conflict began at a time when the Russian Empire was facing enormous problems — a revolution on the one hand and the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War on the other.
By a very strange coincidence, conflicts like this begin when an empire has problems and is weakening, but also needs to maintain its influence in a particular region,” Rubinyan said.
According to him, when Armenia and Azerbaijan became independent and formed regular armies in 1918, the conflict escalated, while it was frozen after the establishment of Soviet rule. Rubinyan said the same cycle was repeated in 1988.
As an example of how conflicts have ended, he cited the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey, saying it resulted in the formation of compact majorities in both countries, which, in his assessment, prevented another interstate ethnic conflict between Greeks and Turks.
“Yes, we have seen many injustices, pain, casualties and bloodshed. But today we have a situation where we Armenians live in the Republic of Armenia, together with our Yazidi, Kurdish, Assyrian and Russian sisters and brothers, as well as our dear sisters and brothers from Karabakh, who are not guests here at all but are in their homeland, while Azerbaijanis live in Azerbaijan. If we do not want to revive the cause of the conflict, then we should not restore or talk about restoring the architecture that would bring us back to roughly the same situation as in 1905,” Rubinyan said.
At the same time, the National Assembly Speaker stressed that an individual’s desire to return to their former place of residence may be justified from a human perspective, but making the issue a state objective could, in his view, have different consequences.
“Therefore, all this talk about the return of the population is conflict-generating. I am not saying it is unjust; from a human perspective, it may be justified. From Ms Arega Hovsepyan’s perspective, of course, it is justified: she may say, ‘I want to go to my home.’
But when you formulate this as a state objective, it means reviving the logic of conflict.
We propose acknowledging the current situation, moving forward and ensuring 100 years of peace,” Rubinyan concluded.