The outgoing U.S. envoy for Karabakh, OSCE MG co-chair Matt Bryza, who was quite a bit criticized in Armenia, as biased in favor of Azerbaijan and Turkey, is only reflecting the policy of the State Department, Frank Pallone Jr., the New Jersey Democrat, a founding co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, said. “The State Department takes a position that Nagorno-Karabakh doesn’t have the status of a state and they have traditionally highlighted territorial integrity over self-determination,” Congressman said.
“But they are wrong in this case because they do not realize that Nagorno-Karabakh has every right to be an independent nation. So, what you really need to do is to have the State Department change its position.
They have to realize that according to the Soviet legal framework, Nagorno-Karabakh had self-government and certain rights, including holding a referendum and becoming an independent country, which is what had happened.
So it’s not simply an issue of territorial integrity versus self-determination. Nagorno-Karabakh is a successor state to the Soviet Union, and no different from Armenia or Russia in that respect,” Frank Pallone said in an interview to Armenian reporter.
According to him, since Nagorno-Karabakh is a small area with a relatively small population, it is difficult for the State Department, and any administration to focus on it.
Answering the question about concessions in the settlement of Nagoro-Karabakh problem, the Congressman said: “The argument that should be made is that this a powder keg. In other words if you do not work to solve this situation and come up with a compromise, there is a potential for another major war in the Caucasus that would have major implications for several neighboring countries, Turkey and Russia especially. And that this strategic concern must be appreciated.
The war between Russia and Georgia [in August 2008] is a recent example of the volatility in the Caucasus region.
