YEREVAN, DECEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Former Foreign Minister of Armenia Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has published an article about the current situation resulting from the blockade of the Lachin Corridor by Azerbaijan, the security and existential risks threatening the people of Artsakh, and the possible ways to overcome the situation.

ARMENPRESS presents the article:

“The moment is crucial: the potential of our resistance is being tested again and again. The challenges facing us are multilayered and multifaceted.

The first among them is the direct danger of humanitarian disaster facing our compatriots of Artsakh. Moreover, the continuous security and escalated existential risks are a more lasting challenge for the population of Artsakh. The next component is the risk relating to the status of Artsakh.

For Armenia, the continuous occupation of its sovereign territory, as well as the prisoners of war held in Azerbaijan for a long time, is a direct challenge. Moreover, the aspirations towards our territories in the south of Syunik are a serious threat to the sovereignty. The phenomena of clashes of contradictory regional and extra-regional interests are of a continuous nature and have further escalated in our region. What is happening in our region is directly linked with the deep crisis in the international arena and with the changes in tectonic nature of the international systems.

Ensuring lasting peace and cooperation environment in the region and around Armenia is a rational, reasonable and vital interest. Obviously, it must be stated that there cannot be peace at the expense of our vital interests. The combination of the current highly conflicting interests is a serious challenge.

At the same time, the Armenian society is facing internal divisions and other contradictory and negative phenomena, giving way to a highly emotional background. Unfortunately, there are also phenomena of indifference and lack of rationalism. As a result, we are subordinating the priorities of the state interest.

In addition, the Armenian world is presented in different formats, the most important of which is the framework of the sovereign state having the whole set of tools of sovereignty and engaging and acting in international relations. In this regard, the main role and the leadership role belong to the Republic of Armenia.

At the same time, Artsakh is also a political entity, including in the context of international relations, but with limited resources, the reason of which is, of course, the limited status, which deprives it of the full use of the sovereign tools.

The Armenian world is also represented by the Armenians of the Diaspora, which, however, should not be viewed as a single unit. It is diverse and multilayered. Their common denominator is being citizens of other countries and preserving at the same time their Armenian identity with personal, collective, educational, religious and other institutional means.

As a sovereign entity in international relations, Armenia’s current priority is to resist the following urgent challenges.

Today, this first of all relates to the elimination of existential risk of the population of Artsakh. In this respect, the first necessary pledge is to maintain the level of internal resistance, mobilization of internal resource and emotional restraint. This requires individual and collective responsibility and political leadership, regardless of who is in power and who is in opposition. The society needs narrative of a different content.

The next priority component is to run a policy based exclusively on the Armenian interest. This supposes stable preservation and clarity of Armenian priorities in relationships with different adversaries and partners, ensuring alignment of combinations and incomparability of interests in calculations.

At the moment, raising international awareness about the existential risks of the population of Artsakh is a priority. This is necessary for creating a respective environment which must lead to practical steps to impact the situation effectively and eliminate the threats. This, first of all, is the function of Armenia. We need to understand very clearly that as a sovereign state, Armenia’s target and first addressee is the level of decision-makers of the respective states, the very highest level.

Based on the realities, the first reasonable, rational addressee is the country which is currently carrying out the peacekeeping functions. But we cannot be limited to that only because we cannot limit the scope of our actions. The fact that we have already received the addressed positions of some capitals is welcome. Their scope needs to be consistently expanded.

Next, using the international tribunes is a sovereign tool. In this sense, the UN Security Council, which, let’s conventionally say, is the highest body in the current realities, is the first target. Moreover, there are other respective platforms within the UN, including the respective agencies or special procedures the mandates of which are relevant to the current situation in Artsakh. This also must be done. By the way, the UN Secretary-General cannot be allowed to stay silent. By the way, the same functions must be exercise in other international and regional platforms. These functions are necessary first of all from the perspective of international presence in Artsakh, from the perspective of ensuring the so-called international eyes and ears.

The deepening of humanitarian crisis in Artsakh, the deepening danger of ethnic cleanings and genocidal acts are leading to the need for the aggressive launch of the “remedial secession” concept. I think, this must be taken into account and kept under spotlight.

The imperative of forming international public opinion and attracting international attention is a key target for actions and steps. Here as well, using a broader resource, including non-governmental and media resource and the Diaspora-Armenians, is necessary. First of all, the leading international news agencies and all other influential platforms must be under target. It is also necessary to actively provide a platform to the representatives of Artsakh, both the leadership and citizens, in the international public field.

Maybe, our resource in terms of aligning interests with different countries is less (like the oil and gas factor in our region), but the sovereign toolkit equips us with the necessary political, legal and other means which needs an active and aggressive launch immediately. At the same time, it is necessary to keep mobilized our resistance and self-defense capacities without any emotional outbursts.

While conducting these functions, it is imperative to sustain duly structured and formulated common positions and narratives, deviations from which  must be ruled out. By the way, talking less, but in a targeted and coordinated language is necessary, not desirable. The Armenian vital interests must be clearly spelt out and there must be no deviations from any of them at any level, especially in a public discourse.

The next priority challenge of the Artsakh bloc is the issue of the latter’s stable security and status deriving from it, in other words, the exercise or re-launch of the right to self-determination. In this regard, the Stepanakert-Baku dialogue platform is a natural way for a peaceful resolution, but, of course, not guaranteed. In this respect, the presence of international mechanism is an inevitable goal. At the same time, in any case, Armenia is the one having the full sovereign toolkit, and therefore, it cannot be left out of this process. No certainty in this matter is visible yet, because in current conditions the key task is to ensure the start of some form of this process in general”.