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ARTSAKH NEWSLETTER Vol. 6, no. 1 September 2003 - January 2004 The ARTSAKH NEWSLETTER is a publication of the NKR
Office in Washington, In this issue...
September 2nd marked the 12th anniversary of Nagorno
Karabakh's independence. In a speech, celebrating the occasion, President
Arkady Ghoukasian said that improving the living conditions of the people,
especially in the villages, remains his government's top priority. In
order to achieve this goal, Ghoukasian said, the government is encouraging
investments in the agricultural sphere, providing incentives to local
farmers to expand their businesses, and exploring ways to export their
production abroad. The President noted Nagorno Karabakh's significant
economic growth of the past several years and said Azerbaijan's hopes
to suffocate Nagorno Karabakh economically have failed. He underscored
his government's policy to continue strengthening the armed forces,
as they remain the only tangible security guarantee. "No one can
take away from us our hard-fought freedom and independence!" Ghoukasian
said. 2. NAGORNO KARABAKH PEACE PROCESS The Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev met December 11 in Geneva to discuss the stalled Nagorno Karabakh peace process. While there were no breakthroughs, it was the two presidents' first such meeting. The newly-elected Azerbaijani President has cemented the Aliyev clan's hold on power in an election that foreign observers called undemocratic. It was the first dynastic transfer of power from father to son in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Kocharian met with Aliyev's late father, Heydar, more than two dozen times, beginning 1999, in a process that brought the sides "significantly close to the final solution of the conflict" in the words of the American, French and Russian Co-Chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group. The two presidents came close to reaching a peace deal, following the Key West, Florida talks in 2001, but Heydar Aliyev backed off at the last minute citing domestic political pressure, a move that, in effect, stalled the peace process. At a press conference following the one-on-one meeting, Kocharian and Aliyev summed up their encounter as an "exchange of opinions" on how best to proceed with the peace process mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Minsk Group. Reportedly, no peace plan was discussed during the meeting. In his comments the Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian called the meeting "useful" but said it had no concrete results. "We are still not sure whether Azerbaijan will continue the talks from the point where they stopped or would like to start everything from scratch," said Oskanian. The meeting followed separate consultations of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen with the Presidents of Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. The recently appointed Russian Co-Chairman of the Group, Yuri Merzlyakov traveled to Stepanakert in September to clarify the position of the Nagorno Karabakh side. Nagorno Karabakh officials stressed the importance of resumption of negotiations, with Stepanakert sitting at the table, alongside Yerevan and Baku. Merzlyakov also traveled to Yerevan and Baku. On October 21, President Arkady Ghoukasian met with the then OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Yerevan, briefing him on the current political situation in the region and offering Stepanakert's perspective on the negotiations process. While in Yerevan, Ghoukasian also met with the European Union's Special Representative for the South Caucasus Heikki Talvitie, who, a day later at a press conference, called Ghoukasian "a central figure in the region". On November 8, Ghoukasian also met in Paris with the French Co-Chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Henri Jacolin. All three OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairman visited the region in early December, arriving in Stepanakert December 7. They held a meeting with President Ghoukasian, Foreign Minister Ashot Ghoulian and Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian. "For us, the negotiation is not a goal by itself, but rather a means of achieving a final settlement of the conflict, in which Nagorno Karabakh is critically interested", said Ghoukasian. He added that it was very important that Azerbaijan cease its smear campaign against the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh, as it impedes rapprochement among the parties to the conflict. At the press conference following the meeting, the Russian Co-Chairman stated that "Nagorno Karabakh is a side in the conflict and this cannot be denied." Ghoukasian said that the mediators did not bring any new proposals but rather some new ideas, which are not yet thoroughly defined. Aliyev made several statements in January characterizing
the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group as "unsuccessful" and
demanding that the mediators come up with new peace proposals. At the
same time he indicated an apparent toughening of Baku's position, saying
that he didn't exclude waging a second war to take Nagorno Karabakh
under Azerbaijan's control. "We will not put up with the current
situation. Azerbaijan has a full right to liberate its territories at
any time and with any means," he declared on January 20th in Baku.
The mediators and the U.S. administration have criticized similar statements
in the past. In a January 23 interview with Paris-based Figaro newspaper,
Aliyev also said "Azerbaijan will never agree to Nagorno Karabakh's
independence or its unification with Armenia." Reaction from Stepanakert
was swift and direct: "The people of Nagorno Karabakh definitely
do not see their future within Azerbaijan," said Foreign Minister
Ghoulian, adding that the independent status of Nagorno Karabakh was
lawfully affirmed during the December 1991 national referendum. "This
should be the basis for defining Nagorno Karabakh's legal status in
any peace agreement," concluded Ghoulian. 3. SITUATION ON THE LINE OF CONTACT The situation on the Line of Contact has remained relatively calm during last five months with the exception of two incidents, in which two Azerbaijani citizens crossed the Line of Contact. One of them, Alsafa Abdulkerimov, a shepherd, apparently got lost near his village and ended up on Nagorno Karabakh's territory on September 13. Later, Asif Bayramov, an Azerbaijani army servicemen, deserted his military unit on September 26, escaping what he described as "regular beatings" he received from his commanding officers, got lost in the fog and accidentally crossed the frontline. The military patrol of the NKR Defense Army detained both Azeris. The Stepanakert missions of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were granted free access to the detainees, who were later returned to the Azerbaijani side. Six OSCE monitoring visits took place during this
period. Two of them occurred in Mardakert province (October 24 and November
28), two near Agdam (September 11 and January 8) and two more in Fizuli
(November 11 and January 22). During the monitoring sessions the Azerbaijani
side did not allow OSCE monitors to access its outposts on the frontline,
breaking the previously reached agreements. No cease-fire violations
were reported during the monitoring sessions. Representatives of the
NKR Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs accompanied the OSCE officials. 4. NKR PRESIDENT VISITS THE UNITED STATES President Arkady Ghoukasian visited Armenian communities
in the United States twice last year, October 23-November 3 and November
25-29. The purpose of the visits was to promote the efforts of the Armenia
Fund in raising funds for two critically important projects in Nagorno
Karabakh: the new state-of-the-art Polyclinic and Diagnostic Center
in Stepanakert and the strategic North-South Highway. The construction
of the $2 million Polyclinic has already begun and during the visit
the remaining $400,000 were raised at an October 24 event in New York
City. The Polyclinic will include a Diagnostic Center to handle advanced
medical testing and analyses for the entire hospital complex. The North-South
"backbone" Highway is 105 miles long and when finished will
link over one hundred towns and villages in the five provinces of Nagorno
Karabakh with its capital Stepanakert. The project has a critical strategic
and economic importance for Artsakh and Armenia. The overall cost of
the project is $25 million. Nearly half of the highway has already been
completed. During the visits, President Ghoukasian met with U.S. Congressmen Frank Pallone (D-NJ) in New York, George Radanovich (R-CA) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) in Fresno, thanking them for the U.S. Congress' continued funding of humanitarian programs in Nagorno Karabakh, which contribute greatly to its post-war reconstruction. Ghoukasian visited the California State Assembly, meeting with Speakers' Chief of Staff, as Speaker Herb Wesson was traveling at the time. In San Francisco, California Assistant Speaker pro Tempore, Assemblyman Leland Yee accompanied Ghoukasian to the Mount Davidson Cross, where they laid a wreath in memory of the one and a half million innocent Armenians, who perished in the Armenian Genocide. Ghoukasian held editorial board meetings with the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe newspapers, briefing foreign editors on recent developments in the South Caucasus and presenting Stepanakert's position on resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. He also met with experts at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. During the All-Armenia Hayastan Fund's Thanksgiving
Day Telethon held November 27, a record-breaking $6.1 million was raised
from Armenians around the world, with the bulk of the funds going to
the completion of the North-South Highway. Among the top contributors
this year were Mrs. Louise Manoogian Simone and Mr. Albert Boyajian,
who donated $1 million each, Mr. Gerard Cafesjian, who gave $500,000
and Russian businessman Ara Abrahamian, who brought in $200,000 on behalf
of the Moscow-based Armenian World Congress. This year, Armenia and
Nagorno Karabakh contributed a record figure of $720,000, which is an
significant amount given their economic hardship. The Armenians of European
countries contributed some $900,000. In order to complete the highway
an additional $7 million is needed. 5. FOREIGN MINISTRY RESPONDS TO AZERBAIJAN'S SMEAR CAMPAIGN On December 10, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
the Nagorno Karabakh Republic issued a statement reacting to a new wave
in Azerbaijan's smear campaign against Stepanakert. The statement refutes
Azerbaijani senior officials' allegations that Nagorno Karabakh is an
uncontrolled "gray zone" that hosts international terrorists
and is involved in drug-trafficking. It said in part, "The Ministry
of Foreign Affairs states that the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh
Republic are responsible for the situation in the NKR and the territories
under its control. The Official Baku's accusations are part of an elaborate
campaign aimed to discredit Nagorno Karabakh and damage the country's
international image." The Foreign Ministry repeated its appeal
to the United Nations, Council of Europe, the OSCE, and to the U.S.
State Department to send fact-finding missions to Karabakh "guaranteeing
unfettered access to all territories under its control to investigate
the matter" and reveal the false nature of Baku's allegations.
The statement underscored that the U.S. Department's 2003 Narcotics
Control Strategy Report indicates that it is the territory of Azerbaijan
that has become one of the major routes of drug trafficking in the world.
The MFA's statement also mentions that beginning in early 1990s, Azerbaijan
hosted a number of Muslim terrorist groups on its territory that provided
support to Azerbaijan in its war against Nagorno Karabakh. Indeed, in
1993, thousands of Islamic mujaheddin from Afghanistan and other countries
fought alongside Azerbaijani conscripts on the frontlines of Karabakh.
Considerable evidence - identification papers, letters and other documents
confiscated from captured or killed mujaheddin, substantiates the report.
6. NATIONAL STATISTICS SERVICE REPORTS 2003 ECONOMIC DATA According to the National Statistics Service, the
industrial output of Nagorno Karabakh grew 39% in 2003, reaching $20.2
million. The processing industry share is 66%, while that of the newly
established copper and gold mining business was 10% of the total industrial
output. At the same time, the private sector produced 67% of all industrial
output. Industrial growth was registered at 18% in Stepanakert, 22%
in Askeran province, 21% in Hadrut province, 520% in Mardakert province,
260% in Martuni province and 40% in Shushi province. As a result, 352
new jobs were created in the industrial sector alone.
* * * The Office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the United States is based in Washington, DC and works with the U.S. government, academia and the public representing the official policies and interests of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. This material is distributed by the office of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the USA on behalf of the government of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. The office is registered with the U.S. government under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
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