Oleg Kuznetsov: recognition of Karabakh by Yerevan won’t change anything

Armenia recognizes the independence of the self-proclaimed ‘Nagorno Karabakh Republic’ Armenia, trying to complicate and prolong the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but this attempt is doomed to be unsuccessful and hopeless, the historian and political analyst, candidate of historical Sciences Oleg Kuznetsov said, commenting on the approval and submission of the bill on the recognition of ‘NKR’ to the parliament by the Armenian government.

First of all, he underlined that the government's decision doesn’t play any role: in fact international laws so significant in such the problem as the recognition of states. "The ratification of international agreements on mutual recognition of states is the prerogative of the supreme legislative body in accordance with the international law, so the approval of the bill by the Government of Armenia is just one of the steps in the legislative process. It is significant, but it doesn’t mean that the National Assembly of Armenia will take the bill and it will become a law," Oleg Kuznetsov said.

The expert drew attention to the fact that chances that the document will be adopted by the parliament reduces affiliation of the authors to the parliamentary minority. "The draft law has been prepared not by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia, but the nationalist o on the party's political platform of ‘Dashnaktsutyun’. It expresses the position of radical nationalists, similar in ideology to the extremists and terrorists, as we know it from history. This initiative is unusual for the current Armenian political mentality step that raises the question,’’ he said.

"Certainly, the situation caused by the victories of the Azerbaijani army in early April in Nagorno-Karabakh that forced the official Yerevan to resort to this political maneuver. Formally, the recognition of ‘the Nagorno Karabakh Republic’ as an independent subject of the international law relieves the current political Armenian elite’s responsibility for the situation in Karabakh – the Kocharyan-Sargsyan clan.On the other hand, the leader of Karabakh separatists Bako Sahakyan will turn from puppets of official Yerevan to the political figure who can make independent steps. For example, reach a peace agreement with Azerbaijan, or refuse to hold any negotiations and to start a war in the South Caucasus,’’ Oleg Kuznetsov said, comment on the reasons that forced Armenian politicians to resume the process of recognition of ‘NKR’.''

"The second problem is it l does not create any fundamentally new political reality. Baku is strictly denies this a reality, exerting long-term efforts to ensure in order to prevent from mentioning of such an amorphous quasi state as ‘NKR’ in any documents as a participant in the negotiation process, or a subject of the international law. in addition, there is a contradiction of the UN Security Council resolutions, which stressed that the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is not the conflict between residents of Karabakh and Azerbaijan, or Armenia and Azerbaijan. This step is doomed to create the new platform for talks, and even if Armenia establishes the status of Nagorno-Karabakh to the state-legal level, it won’t change the situation,’’ Oleg Kuznetsov said.

In this regard, the expert gave the example of the recent history of Russia. "In 1996, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was proclaimed, which is just a couple of months after the declaration was recognized by Estonia as an independent subject of the international law. This did not prevent the Russian military and the authorities to carry out a series of counter-terrorist operations to restore the constitutional order in the Chechen Republic. The same thing we can see now in Nagorno-Karabakh. That is why I believe that all of these Yerevan’s steps are unsuccessful and hopeless attempt to prolong the agony of the occupation regime in Nagorno-Karabakh,’’ he concluded.