Azerbaijan not ready for Karabakh conflict resolution

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs drew up a “blacklist” of foreign citizens, who observed the NKR parliamentary elections on May 23, 2010. All of them will be rejected entry visas to Azerbaijan. The list includes five Russian parliamentarians: Igor Chernyshenko, Kirill Cherkasov, Tatyana Volozhinskaya, Maxim Mishenko and Konstantin Zatulin, as well as international observer Galina Ratnikova, public and political activist Victor Sheynis and expert of the Foundation of Strategic Culture Andrey Areshev. French, German, Argentine and other countries citizens are also on the list.

Chairman of the Board of the Analytical Center for Globalization and Regional Cooperation Stepan Grigoryan said that such tough reaction towards the presence of international observers in the NKR parliamentary elections proves that currently Azerbaijan is not ready for the Karabakh conflict resolution to be based on compromises and mutual concessions.

“If Azerbaijan uses the language of ultimatums and sanctions with respect to citizens of such influential states, as Russia, France, Germany, Argentina, Slovakia and Czech Republic, then NKR citizens’ destiny, if they again appear under the jurisdiction of Azerbaijan, is unclear. This demarche is another evidence of the Azerbaijani leadership’s inability to recognize political and other rights of Armenians residing in Karabakh. Meanwhile, their statements about readiness to provide Armenians with a high level of autonomy are nothing but propaganda show for “naive” representatives of the international community,” Grigoryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

According to him, one could “conceive” Azerbaijan’s behavior only if it rejected entry visas for those Turkish parliamentarians and citizens, who were observers in Kosovo elections over recent five years, as well as for a Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkey, who visited Abkhazia in 2009. “Otherwise, the clamor raised by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs is called “policy of dual standards,” stressed Grigoryan.