Interview with member of Azerbaijani Milli Majlis (Parliament) Gultakin Hajibayli.
In your opinion, what will be the outcome of the Sargsyan-Erdogan meeting in terms of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?
Frankly, I do not hope for a positive outcome of the meeting. I do not think that at the moment Armenia, headed by Sargsyan, a person directly involved in the Karabakh wave and who came to power as a result of occupation of Azerbaijani territories through the policy of terrorism, ready to make concessions.
There are less and less hopes also given the strong rise in opposition movement in Armenia as of late. Besides, people who came to power on a wave of so-called “liberation movements” cannot make specific concessions as in this case Armenian opposition, which is growing stronger every day, will take advantage of it.
I really hope that Erdogan and Obama will be able to persuade Sargsyan to make concessions, especially given the sincere desire of the Turkish authorities and the sincere intention of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to contribute to conflict resolution. I also hope that Barack Obama will use his power and authority to influence Sargsyan to some extent.
In addition to domestic factors in Armenia, which I mentioned above, there is also no less important external factor – Armenia’s dependence on Russia. Russia’s political will to resolve the conflict also is an important component in the so-called future success of resolution process. So, I do not have great expectations from the Washington meeting.
So far, I have noticed no changes in the political situation in Armenia and beyond it which could help resolve the conflict. Unfortunately, there is no serious pressure on Armenia, primarily by the OSCE Minsk Group, which contributes to hardening of positions of this country, despite numerous attempts by the Turkish leadership and tremendous efforts made by Turkish Prime Minister. I think progress seems unlikely without political will of Yerevan and by those forces that governs it at even greater extent.
Recently, Serzh Sargsyan said that Armenia has its own proposals on the Armenian-Turkish normalization which he intends to present a little later. In your opinion, what Armenia can propose? Will Armenia make concessions or, on the contrary, to withdraw from the Ankara-Yerevan protocols?
I think this is about a long-known approach of Armenia, but with a different sauce. It can only be reworded. But I think that Sargsyan’s new proposal will also imply necessity of opening the Turkish-Armenian border not making opening the border conditional on liberation of occupied Azerbaijani territories in any way.
Iranian Foreign Minister announced last week that Iran has submitted proposals on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution to Armenia and Azerbaijan. But Armenian rejects Iranian mediation in this matter. In your opinion, what is the reason?
I think that, despite Iran is a Muslim country, it actively supports Armenia, a country that has committed an aggression against Muslim nation Azerbaijanis. I would like to see Iran to be sincere in its mediation efforts which should primarily imply stopping support for Armenia. Everyone knows that Armenia would not survive without active economic support and relations with Iran.
The fact that Armenia refuses Iran’s involvement in this conflict may have different reasons. At a time when conflict resolution is at a certain stage and the parties are negotiating over items of the Madrid principles, it is impossible to talk seriously about changing the format of negotiations and inclusion of any country in the process.
Today.Az
