EU and U.S. Should Support Aspirations of Nagorno Karabakh to Remain Free

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Washington Post published NKR Representative Vardan Barseghian's letter to the Editor in response to a March 11, 2006 op-ed column entitled "Russia's Shadow Empire" by Ana Palacio and Daniel Twining, reported the information and analytical department of the NKR MFA. Representative Barseghian's letter says: "The March 11 op-ed column "Russia's Shadow Empire" touched upon the "frozen conflicts" on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains "frozen" because of Azerbaijan's unwillingness to accept the democratically expressed will of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Nagorno Karabakh has never belonged to an independent Azerbaijan. It has the legal, factual and moral prerequisites to pursue its independence. The authors of the op-ed piece advocated rewarding Azerbaijan for its willingness to cooperate in ending this conflict. Do President Ilham Aliyev's regular threats to launch a new war against Nagorno-Karabakh count as goodwill? The European Union and the United States should support the aspirations of Nagorno Karabakh to remain free and discourage Azerbaijan from unleashing a new war. This would signal Azerbaijan that it should embark on more constructive negotiations to bring stability and economic cooperation to Europe's new neighborhood."