In a recent interview to REGNUM the advisor of the Armenian defense minister, doctor of political sciences Hayk Kotanjyan made public his scenario of how to combine the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination as applied to the Karabakh peace process. The interview was supplemented by the author’s view of the road map carrying on polemics with the reports of the International Crisis Group. Following this controversial response we have asked the author to give some explanations.
REGNUM: Your opponents conclude that you were granted an information leak on the Minsk Group agreements. Is this true?
This is not true. In my interview I give some of my ideas and conflict solving schemes in academic polemics with the findings of my colleagues from such an authoritative analytical organization as the International Crisis Group (ICG). As an expert in the sphere, I agree and disagree with a number of judgements and proposals by my ICG colleagues. My analysis is an attempt to draw the attention of professionals as well as to reevaluate the proposals made by the OSCE Minsk Group in 1997 and 1998 on the status of Nagorno Karabakh and on the corridor between Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. You can find open sources information on the OSCE MG Co-chairmanship 1997-1998 documents in the internet (see: http://vn.kazimirov.ru/docs.htm). Concerning the “leak” fantasies and personal offences — they, obviously, go beyond the framework of an academic dispute. But still, my belief is that professional polemic is very topical and essential.
REGNUM: What is the objective of making public the “Road Map for Karabakh Peace Settlement”?
The objective is to unfold constructive professional polemics with the Draft Road Map for Karabakh Peace Settlement by the International Crisis Group. To be a mouthpiece for giving the conflicting parties my vision of the truth about the limits of harmonization of their interests and to outline for experts as well as people in Armenia and Azerbaijan the possibilities for overcoming confrontations in their relations.
REGNUM: In the neighbor country some hotheads have called your article “a plan of Azerbaijan’s capitulation,” while those in Armenia “a document of the nation’s treason.” So, the opponents are criticizing some document entitled “Road Map for Karabakh Peace Settlement.” How would you comment on this?
My article is surely not a document. It is an author’s work, an academic essay containing no political or legal imperatives for its compulsory and comprehensive implementation. The publication and professional discussion of my analysis may be helpful in making more expansive and flexible the intellectual resources of the international expert community for their exerting consulting influence on the course of the consultative and negotiating process for the benefit of the conflicting parties. In this very light I welcome the publication of the analytical response from Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh as an attempt to critically review the “Road Map” article. It might be useful if Azeri experts also got involved in the dispute.
REGNUM: Does you “road map” envisage reunification of Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia?
Yes, provided that Azerbaijan rejects effective consultations under the OSCE MG aegis and fails to start negotiations with Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Republic of Armenia for peacefully resolving the Karabakh conflict. Then NKR as a lawfully formed state may start talks with Republic of Armenia for holding a referendum on “a unified state.”
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