The main problem in the Karabakh process lies in the fact that Azerbaijan insists on keeping its territorial integrity, and it considers Karabakh to be part of the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenian President Robert Kocharian stated in an interview to Al Jazeera TV company. In his words, the fall of the Soviet Union resulted in radical changes, the whole map of Europe changed. “We have never been against any country’s territorial unity and integrity because we also have a country. However, we believe that Azerbaijan and Nagorno Karabakh each have equal rights for territorial integrity. Both are countries with the right to exist independently. This is the obstacle that the negotiations have been facing for the past 15 years. Nagorno Karabakh is an independent state. It was never part of independent Azerbaijan. Today, a generation has emerged that does not relate to Azerbaijan and cannot even imagine living under another country’s rule,” Kocharian stated.
Answering a question on Baku statements on “occupation of 20% of territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia,” Kocharian said, “There exist two lies. The first is that 20% of Azerbaijan territory is occupied, and the second is that there are one million Azeri refugees. The true numbers are totally different. However, the numbers made up by Azerbaijan have been repeated so many times that it is now believed to be the reality. The number of refugees actually includes people from both sides: Armenians and Azeris. During Soviet rule, there lived half a million Armenians in Soviet Azerbaijan, excluding those living in Karabakh. Where are they now? Part of those Armenians are now in Armenia, another part are living in Russia, and a third group are scattered around the world. As for the Azeri lands, we have repeatedly stated that, except for the narrow strip of land (Lachin) between Karabakh and Armenia, we are prepared to negotiate the terms of returning territories to Azerbaijan. If Azerbaijan truly cared about its refugees and the situation in those lands outside the administrative borders of Azerbaijan, it could have restored them a long time ago if the Azeri president had signed the agreement in Minsk and which was drawn up by the OSCE Minsk Group”, reported Groong.
