ANALYTICS

Lavrov-Kalantarov urges Karabakh Armenians to settle for 'status' as Azerbaijan citizens

02.12.22 11:20


Few people in the world have made as much effort to 'legitimise' Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani Karabakh as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with the real surname Kalantarov. It was he who held on to the so-called "status" of the separatist "Artsakh" on Azerbaijani lands until the very last. It was for the sake of "statuses" and new "lands of the Armenian state" that he and other representatives of the Armenian lobby in Russia dragged Russia into bloody adventures of aggression against Georgia and recognition of "independence" of Abkhazia and so-called South Ossetia.

 

Moreover, the Armenian lobby and the same Lavrov-Kalantarov, in fact, facilitated aggression against Ukraine, which actually began with the annexation of Ukrainian Crimea and the struggle for the "status" of separatist entities in Ukrainian Donbas - i.e. again, precedents for separatism.

 

And so, all these efforts in Karabakh turn out to be in vain.  The 'Artsakh' separatist project has been a total fiasco. There is no question of any 'status' for Karabakh Armenians other than that of citizens of Azerbaijan (for those who have the right to such citizenship as a native of Azerbaijan within internationally recognised borders and wishes). And this was officially acknowledged by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov-Kalantarov at his press conference on 1 December 2022.

 

It follows from the words of the Russian foreign minister that Baku is ready to give the Karabakh Armenians the rights enjoyed by other Azerbaijani citizens, and the Armenian leadership is forced to agree to this "maximum" that it can get.

 

"The Azerbaijani side is ready to discuss and provide them with all guarantees of the rights that other Azerbaijani citizens have. It is not for nothing that the Armenian leadership has recently been talking not so much about status, but about the need to ensure the rights of the Armenian population in Karabakh," said Sergey Lavrov-Kalantarov.

 

Curiously, the Russian foreign minister presented Azerbaijan's official position as the only possible one that Armenia should agree to before it is too late. He did not even mention the notorious "right of peoples to self-determination" that Armenian nationalists and "Artsakh" separatists like to call for.

 

Also, Sergey Lavrov made it clear who is to blame for the fact that the current conditions the Armenian side is forced to accept are far worse than those it could have "bargained for" by agreeing to a voluntary and peaceful de-occupation of Azerbaijani lands.

 

According to the Russian Foreign Minister, Russia put forward proposals for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict back in 2012, and in case of their acceptance "the Karabakh problem would have been closed down forever and ever":

 

"At least from that period came the concept of postponing the status of Karabakh for later. The concept was very simple: Armenians would withdraw from the five Azerbaijani districts around Karabakh, leaving behind two districts that connect Armenia with Karabakh, and the fate of these two districts, which are Azerbaijani, no one disputes this, but the fate of these two remaining Azerbaijani districts would be determined in conjunction in time with the determination of Karabakh's status. That's when the concept of leaving the status for later appeared for the first time. And for later was meant for the next generations, figuratively speaking.

 

Later, there was the war in the autumn of 2020, it stopped at the stage of preliminary contacts, when trilateral statements were being prepared, three trilateral summits with the Russian President - two in Moscow, one in Sochi. At that time it was also said that the political process had to be launched somehow, and there was an understanding that the status of Karabakh could be postponed. And based on that, Russia formulated its version of a peace treaty, which was handed over to the parties in spring, and that phrase was there. And, by the way, the Azerbaijani side said that it was ready to support practically everything, but that the issue of the status should be worked out further.  And at the meeting in Sochi at the end of October, we wanted to return to this issue and understand to what extent our partners were ready to act on the basis of that gentlemanly understanding - to solve all the issues and leave the status of Karabakh for later, but when President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan arrived in Sochi, they brought back the very document from Prague which said that they wanted to sign a peace agreement, guided by the UN Charter and the Alma Ata declaration.

 

While the Alma Ata Declaration on the formation of the CIS clearly said that the borders between the new states will be based on the borders between the union republics of the former Soviet Union, where Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous district is clearly part of the Azerbaijani SSR. And when signing this agreement, our Armenian colleagues tell us that let the Russian Federation confirm its proposals on the status of Karabakh, well, you understand for yourselves that this is a little out of the realm of negotiation," Lavrov-Kalantarov said, trying to shift the blame onto politicians in Yerevan and their hope for Western mediators, as the issue of the separatist "Artsakh's status" is finally buried.

 

However, with whatever mediators - after the 44-day war, Azerbaijan is in principle not negotiating any "status" for any separatist entities on its territory. "The train has left. The Armenian side should have gone for the de-occupation of Azerbaijani lands voluntarily and much earlier. And now all the efforts of the same Lavrov-Kalantarov to create separatist "precedents" have come to naught.

 

True, the Armenian lobby still has one more separatist project on foreign territory, which they will be the last to give up. We are talking about separatist Abkhazia where, under the cover of Russian occupant, a "maritime Armenia" is being rapidly established on these Georgian territories. But given the way in which Russia is losing power and international positions, here, too, it will have to return to the mentioned by the Russian foreign minister "borders between the Union republics of the former Soviet Union" according to which Abkhazia and Tskhinvali are an integral part of Georgia.

 

 

Alexander Gedevanishvili

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