A senior Armenian parliament official on Wednesday voiced his concerns over Azerbaijan’s attempts to impart a religious or geopolitical context to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, calling instead for an international reaction to those policies as a real hazard to the country’s future.
In a speech at the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Committee’s 17th session in Yerevan, Head of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Armen Ashotyan (ruling Republican Party of Armenia) cited Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s attempt to link the issue to religion in his recent speech at the Islamic conference in Istanbul.
“It poses a real hazard, as the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has nothing to do with religion. Armenians are scattered across the Islamic world and they are good citizens in different Islamic countries. Just think for yourselves of the hazards the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would pose against the backdrop of the Islamic State’s upsurge. This would heat up the hell by yet another degree. This kind of misunderstanding must be prevented. It will be very dangerous indeed if the civilized world takes no action at all to hamper [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev’s efforts, allowing him to represent the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a religious conflict,” he said.
Ashotyan further cited the European Parliament Resolution on the Situation in Soviet Armenia (1988), highlighting its importance as a document “reflecting the Council of Europe’s support to the Karabakh movement and the [ethnic] minorities’ demand for reunification with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia”.
“The Council of Europe condemned the Armenian pogroms in Sumgait. The Nagorno-Karabakh movement was considered a democratic, national movement then,” Ashotyan said, describing the resolution as a clear-worded legally binding instrument reflecting the European political establishment’s position on the conflict resolution scenario.
“I would like to also underline that Nagorno-Karabakh has thousands of residents who must really enjoy the fundamental rights granted by the United Nations. I don’t speak about political rights. Those rights are being enjoyed as it is. We need instead to emphasize the importance of engaging them in cultural, educational, environmental and other projects, which those people are practically deprived of today. The status quo prevents the people in Nagorno-Karabakh to take part, for example, in EU funding projects. The Artsakh youth is not eligible for the Erasmus+,” Ashotyan added.