‘I apologize’: Belarusian blogger says during International Forum of Bloggers in Artsakh
In order to maintain peace in the (Caucasus) region, it is necessary to help the Azerbaijani society to get rid of the country’s leadership. Expert on security affairs Hrachya Arzumanyan expressed such an opinion during today’s International Forum of Bloggers kicked off in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh/NK), Panorama.am reports.
Touching upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the expert begin his speech with a historical background presenting the reasons behind the conflict, its consequences and the current situation.
Regarding the April incidents, Arzumanyan noted that everyone realized that the (Karabakh) conflict has no military solution. According to him, the Armenian Armed Forces proved that they are strong, adding that ‘today’s young men are even stronger than their fathers who took part in the first Artsakh war.’
This four-day war made it clear that the Armenian people are able to self-organize quickly.
“If the self-origination took several weeks during the first war in Artsakh, the April events showed that the Armenian people can organize themselves in 4-6 hours,” the expert noted underscoring the roles of the social networks and the blogs in this context.
According to Arzumanyan, different opinion polls come to prove that today’s clan authorities of Azerbaijan stand as an obstacle to the peaceful coexistence of Azerbaijani and Artsakh people.
“In order to ensure peace in the region, the international community must consider how it can ‘dismantle’ the current Azerbaijani authorities. We need to help the Azerbaijani people to get rid of that disease through the international law or courts because of inciting hatred and creating the current situation,” Arzumanyan said.
Speaking about the possibility of the war renewal, the expert noted that even if a war breaks out, it will not have a local coverage, referring to the events in the Middle East and the fact that they take place 500km far from the South Caucasus.
Briefing on the situation, the expert called on the blogosphere representatives to assist in correcting the situation through their participation.
During the break, a blogger representing Belarus Alexander Hoishik turned to the case of (Russian-Israeli blogger) Alexander Lapshin, noting that he does not think that ‘the Belarusian authorities will exchange their citizen with oil, as it was the case with Lapshin’.
Turning to Lapshin’s case, he noted that it is hard situation when a person ends up in the big political game as a minor player. According to the blogger, the Belarusian authorities have made use of Lapshin’s case due to the relations between Minsk and Moscow.
“This step left a negative impact on the international image of our country. It became clear that we did not receive any oil losing the game in all the aspects. I express my apologies to Russia, the people of Belarus cannot make decisions, however we all opposed to such a decision of our authorities,” Hoishik noted.
In the opinion of Moscow-based blogger Anton Nosik, it is very important for a person to visit Karabakh at least once before expressing views over the NK conflict.
“My job is expressing opinions freely; however there is a regime that considers it unacceptable. It only accepts its own views imprisoning those who express different opinions. I do not intend to reckon with that regime,” Nosik said.
Being in Artsakh for the first time, the Russian blogger noted that before his visit he imagined Artsakh in a different way viewing it as an internationally unrecognized state on the verge of war with no signs of development.
“However I see that everything is renovated here, new constructions are underway and the country is developing. This is just incredible. Stepanakert is such a neat city as Yerevan and Tbilisi, which is also wonderful,” the Russian blogger said.
Nosik labelled Labshin’s case as terrible and unacceptable.”
“It turns out that a Russian and Israeli citizen must follow the rules of Azerbaijan in Russia and Israel, in that case why he/she does not follow the North Korean or Iraqi rules? This is unacceptable in terms of the international law,” the blogger noted adding that Lukashenko is building his relations with Baku on the basis of the oil and gas interests, not in terms of the value of the freedom of speech, ‘it is clear why the Hungarian authorities extradited Safarov’.
“I am not going to take into account that interests regarding oil and have no connections with the clan of Aliyevs to consider how to talk about them or their regime,” Nosik added.