Your trusted source

Panorama.am spoke with David Babayan, the Spokesperson of the President of Nagorno Karabahk Republic, to discuss the unprecedented military aggression of Azerbaijan against Nagorno Karabakh on April 2-5, as well as the political and legal consequences of the Four Day War.

- Mr Babayan, in one of your latest interviews you have underlined that “the Four Day War also indicated that it is not viable to return to the previous status and borders”. Will you please elaborate what you meant?

- Indeed, there can be no return to the borders and the status that Artsakh used to have during the Soviet years until 1991. The large scale war unleashed by Azerbaijan in 1991-94 was by and large a result of vulnerable borders that Artsakh was believed to have. [Therefore] they were seduced to attack and destroy [Artsakh]. Nothing like that shall happen in the future.

- The official Artsakh insists that the Nagorno Karabakh Republic shall again become a full party in the negotiations. What if that doesn’t happen?

- We are not putting an ultimatum to the international community. We are saying that without Artsakh this issue cannot be settled, and this war has also proven this. If Azerbaijan is attacking us, considering us to be a party to the conflict, how can we not be involved in the negotiations? This is the question. It is not logical to hold negotiations without Artsakh.

- What lessons shall Azerbaijan and the international community extract from the Four Day War?

- The Four Day War shall be a lesson for everyone. It showed, that there is no viable military solution possible and is fraught with unpredictable consequences. This was vividly revealed during the four days of military hostilities. The international community shall express a strong position with regarsd to the Azerbaijani policies in this issue.

- What did the people of Artsakh prove during the war?

- The people of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic proved a very important thing during the Four Day War, what we are always talking about. We are in favor of a peaceful resolution, but that does not mean weakness, neither it means we may fail to defend our homeland, freedom and dignity. And this will be the case till the end. If the adversary believes they can solve the issue with the use of force, I would say they are living in illusions. Both the people of Nagorno Karabakh, the Armenians in general, and Armenia together with the Diaspora are ready to stand up for the protection of their homeland so long as necessary. This is obvious to everyone, and has been proven once again.

- The Ministry of Defense of Nagorno Karabakh Republic is making statements almost everyday about the violations of the ceasefire agreement by the adversary.

- Indeed, the ceasefire agreement is being violated. That’s the nature of our adversary. But now we have a situation on the ground where absolute evaluations are fruitless. Everything shall be seen in comparison. If you compare with the ceasefire violations during the past two years or during the Four Day War, the situation at the moment is of course more sustainable.

- Both in Armenia and Artsakh they make statements that the facts of atrocities committed by Azerbaijan shall be communicated to the international bodies to have their opinions and evaluations. Where are we on that now?

- We are working on a number of tracks. There is evidence of flagrant violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. What the Azerbaijanis have committed against the civilian population or done with the bodies of the deceased, is inhuman and perhaps cannot be explained. Relevant bodies continue their work in order to present all those facts to the international agencies. We will be consistent on this since such atrocities at the very least shall be condemned by the international community.