Karabakh Armenians rejected absurd conditions and put forward new ones

Karabakh Armenians who moved to Armenia in 2023 have changed the previously voiced concept of returning to their former places of residence.

Until recently, the leaders of the Karabakh Armenians’ public organizations made demands impossible for Baku to be ready to return under international security guarantees, provided that Azerbaijani forces withdraw from Karabakh and receive the status of independence. Since February 22, a new concept has been published, according to the head of the Committee for Protection of Fundamental Rights of the People of Nagorno-Karabakh, former Foreign Minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian.

In an interview with the Armenian service of “Radio Liberty”, he stated that the Armenians would return if there was “a joint administration at the level of Nagorno-Karabakh-OSCE or Nagorno-Karabakh-UN, which may be of a transitional, temporary nature.”

Oskanian proposes negotiations between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan, as a result of which the parties will be able to solve the fate of the Armenians.

“I’m not talking about the status of autonomy or any other status. Let the people decide this in the future. The Armenian authorities are obliged to put this on their agenda, because it is precisely because of their mistakes that these people find themselves in the current situation. Nagorno-Karabakh is lost as a result of their mistakes. They are obliged to promote the demand for the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh. If the Armenian authorities had previously, as I said, introduced the issue of the autonomous status of Nagorno-Karabakh, as it was in Soviet times, the situation would be different today,” Oskanian said.

Thus, the former Minister puts forward a new plan: first, the return of Armenians to Karabakh under security guarantees from international forces. Then there will be negotiations on the status of Armenians in Azerbaijan, and the conditions for the mandatory independence of the Karabakh Armenians from Azerbaijan are no longer there.

“Even Azerbaijan talks about the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh, although its perception is somewhat different. There is a right to return, and through diplomatic work it will be possible to obtain guarantees and conditions so that Armenians feel safe upon return. If the Armenian authorities take over this work, the probability of implementing the idea would be at the level of 60-70%. Without this support, the probability is below 50%,” the former Minister said.

The Armenian leadership, represented by Prime Minister N. Pashinyan, not only does not cooperate with the Karabakh community, but even demonstrates hostility to the leaders of Armenian separatism.

Official Baku has repeatedly stated its unchanged vision of the possibility of the return of Armenians to Karabakh: on condition that they obtain Azerbaijani citizenship with the exception of special rights, and with the parallel return of Azerbaijanis to places of historical residence in modern Armenia.

Recall that according to the estimates of the Armenian side, 120.000 Armenians left the Karabakh Economic Zone in 2020-2023.–