Armenia Submits Bill Recognizing Independent Nagorno-Karabakh

[MosJan]

Armenia Submits Bill Recognizing Independent Nagorno-Karabakh

 

The Armenian government has approved a draft bill recognizing the Nagorno-Karabakh region's independence and sent it to the country's parliament, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Thursday.

The bill was submitted by Armenian opposition lawmakers Zarui Postanjan and Grant Bagratyan.

Similar initiatives have been presented to the Armenian government in the past, but the Cabinet has repeatedly rejected them, citing concerns that it could interfere with negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, RIA Novosti reported. The regional conflict is mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group — co-chaired by Russia, France and the United States.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said that the government's decision “has been conditioned by discussions between Armenia and Karabakh, taking external and internal factors into account.”

In early April, tensions in Azerbaijan's breakaway region, populated mostly by ethnic Armenians, escalated as both sides accused each other of offensive warfare. Baku and Yerevan have been engaged in a dispute over the region for more than 20 years, since 1988 when Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed its independence from Azerbaijan. The move led to a war, which ended in 1994 following a cease-fire.

Novruz Mamedov, deputy head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, had earlier called the Armenian lawmakers’ proposal to recognize the region’s independence “a provocation,” Azeri news outlets reported.

 

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/armenia-submits-bill-recognizing-independent-nagorno-karabakh/568076.html

[Yervant1]

Mechanics of Recognition: Long process required for Karabakh bill to become law

By GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN -

May 6, 2016

If Armenia is to recognize the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic (NKR), then the opposition-drafted bill that got a go-ahead
from the government based on its endorsement of a Foreign Ministry
conclusion on May 5 should still pass several stages before becoming a
law.

National Assembly Public Relations and Information Department Chief
Arsen Babayan explains in a Facebook post that whenever a bill is
presented by lawmakers, the government sends its conclusion to the
National Assembly, and not the bill itself as was wrongly presented by
some media on Thursday.

“The bill is already in the National Assembly… The process is then
determined by the National Assembly Regulations under which the bill
is to be discussed in a relevant key committee within 30 days (in this
case in the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations) and a conclusion
on it should be made, after which it will appear on the agenda of a
plenary four-day session,” Babayan wrote.

According to the official, the Regulations allow the National Assembly
to take one of the following three decisions: to include the bill in
the agenda, to postpone it or to reject it.

Eventually, it is clear that, if included, the bill may remain on the
parliament’s bigger agenda for an indefinite period of time and make
it to the floor when deemed appropriate.

In the past whenever the bill reached the voting stage, out of
political considerations of the moment, the parliamentary majority
would block it by opting out and affecting the quorum – no one voted
against it, but since there were nowhere near enough “yea” votes, its
passage would fail.

Even if the bill is passed by parliament and becomes law, in order to
be enacted it will have to be signed by the President.

Speaking to media following the meeting of the Supreme Body of the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia, the party’s press secretary,
Deputy Parliament Speaker Eduard Sharmazanov said that Armenia’s
ultimate goal is Nagorno-Karabakh’s international recognition and that
it will do everything to achieve that goal.

Remarkably, in an exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
earlier this week NKR Foreign Minister Karen Mirzoyan said that he
expected a series of international recognitions of the republic in the
time to come. He placed importance on Nagorno-Karabakh’s international
recognition, saying that it could have a positive impact on the peace
process.

So far, the NKR’s independence has been recognized by two partially
recognized states, Georgia’s breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, as well as the unrecognized Moldovan breakaway republic of
Transnistria. Among the entities that have recognized the NKR is the
most populous Australian state of New South Wales, as well as seven
U.S. states, including California, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Hawaii. The legislature of the latter
passed a resolution on recognizing the NKR’s independence several days
before the April aggression of Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh.

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[Yervant1]

Whole society must decide in favor of Nagorno-Karabakh recognition –
Suren Zolyan

21:39 • 06.05.16

In an interview with Tert.am, political scientist Suren Zolyan
commented on the Armenian government’s conclusion on the bill
recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh.

Regrettably, Armenia’s authorities change in the course of time, while
the approach to recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh remains unchanged.

Mr Zolyan, what do you think of the process of recognition of
Nagorno-Karabakh, the government’s conclusion, which has not been
properly perceived due to being uncertain, with following
international media reports on Armenia recognizing Nagorno-Karabakh’s
independence? The Armenian premier’s spokesman offered explanations.

I do not think the government would make a right step by approving
such a decision without public or political debates – regardless of
whether it would be a positive or negative decision. I believe this
issue is the basis of Armenia’s politics. In this case, I consider
myself a person concerned with the issue because I raised this issue
or the first time in a bill submitted to the Supreme Council of
Armenia as far back as 1992 – recognizing the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic because the newly formed Supreme Council of Nagorno-Karabakh
applied to world parliaments for recognition. At that time, the issue
was delayed not because of our fundamental objections. Rather, we
proposed putting the bill on the agenda as an urgent issue and
creating necessary conditions for that. Similar issues, and this
particular one, must become prehistory of Armenia’s politics. That is,
there may be a certain deadline. However, if negotiations do not
produce any result, we recognize [Nagorno-Karabakh]. I can cite
Kosovo’s example, when certain terms were set before Serbian
authorities: the international community would take a relevant step if
they did not recognize within a certain deadline. Of course, it
requires preparatory work, which has not recently been done because
every time the issue was raised war was in question. In this respect,
I think we should consider serious debates rather than today’s
meeting. I think that, without expert opinions and political decisions
based on them – with the whole society involved – adopting such a
decision would not be right.

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[Yervant1]

Russia not contributing to Karabakh recognition – Armenian diplomat

14:04 • 07.05.16

With its political stance on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Russia does
not in any way contribute to the country’s international recognition,
an Armenian diplomat said today, commenting on Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov’s recent statement.

“Russia does not contribute to the process, with the United States
being silent and Turkey keeping distance. I think Azerbaijan will
incite a wide-scale war, but that will be unrelated to Karabakh’s
recognition,” Ambassador Arman Navasardyan told reporters on Saturday.

In an interview with the Russian news agency RIA Novosti earlier this
week, Minister Lavrov said that “Moscow sees no panic” over an
initiative by Armenia to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence.

Commenting on the OSCE Minsk Group’s mission and role in brokering
peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Navasardyan described the
institution as a “non-functioning mechanism” which will eventually
cease to exist sometime in the near future. “Interestingly enough,
Azerbaijan, which used to be critical of the Minsk Group, has now
raised hysteria over that structure’s possible demise,” he said.

Asked whether he agrees that war remains the only alternative to
negotiations, Navasardyan admitted that the situation today prompts
such a scenario.

“The question which has been raised has a propagandistic nuance, i.e.
– to intimidate the big states. Nagorno-Karabakh’s recognition is
something we should have done long ago to avoid so much bloodshed.
What we need to do now is to make Karabakh join the negotiation
process. That’s our key task,” he said.

Diplomacy’s silence today sees cannons roaring, Navasardyan added.

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