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Since every Armenian around the world passionately upholds the interests of Artsakh (Karabagh), many wonder why the Government of Armenia has not officially recognized its independence from Azerbaijan.<\/b><\/p>\n
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Armenia\u2019s leaders are concerned that recognizing Artsakh\u2019s independence prematurely would undermine the peace process with Azerbaijan and possibly subject Armenia to international pressure and sanctions. Moreover, Pres. Serzh Sargsyan has announced that Armenia would recognize Artsakh in case Azerbaijan resorts to war.<\/b><\/p>\n
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Opposition political figures assert that Artsakh\u2019s recognition is long overdue and blame Armenian officials for not formally recognizing its independence. They also wonder how Armenians can expect other countries to recognize the Republic of Artsakh without Armenia taking the lead. Based on these arguments, opposition Heritage party members periodically bring up a resolution to the Armenian Parliament for the recognition of the Republic of Artsakh. Undoubtedly, such proposals are prompted out of a sincere conviction that Armenia has an obligation to recognize this liberated territory. However, there are those who are convinced that the opposition\u2019s true intent is to embarrass the government\u2019s majority by daring its members to cast a vote against Artsakh\u2019s recognition.<\/b><\/p>\n
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Such resolutions create awkward situations not only for pro-government parliamentarians, but also other opposition members who are compelled to support the resolution in order not to give the false impression that they oppose Artsakh\u2019s independence.<\/b><\/p>\n
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On Nov. 13, when Zaruhi Postanjian, leader of the Heritage Parliamentary block, proposed such a resolution, the final vote was 10 in favor and 0 against. The resolution was not adopted even though no one voted against it, as the overwhelming majority of the 131 parliamentarians decided to boycott the session rather than vote against Artsakh\u2019s recognition.<\/b><\/p>\n
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Surprisingly, officials of Armenia, Artsakh and Azerbaijan have had a similar reaction to the resolution. Vahram Atanessian, Chairman of Artsakh\u2019s Foreign Relations Committee, expressed his agreement with the position of Armenia\u2019s parliamentary majority: \u201cAt this moment, recognition of the Artsakh Republic does not serve a useful purpose, as it would cause a number of significant problems.\u201d Shavarsh Kocharyan, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia, concurred: \u201cRecognizing Artsakh at this time would be contrary to Armenia\u2019s interests, because it would make it the only country to do so, thus creating an unfavorable situation for Armenia at the present time.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
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Elman Abdullayev, spokesman for Azerbaijan\u2019s Foreign Ministry, agreed with Armenian officials: \u201cThe discussion of the bill on the recognition of Nagorno Karabagh as an independent state by the Armenian Parliament would negatively affect the peaceful settlement of the conflict and aims at undermining this process.\u201d Azeri political scientist Fikrat Sadikhov reacted with harsher words: \u201cSuch recognition would be a blunt challenge to Azerbaijan, which, of course, would not remain unanswered. Yerevan is very well aware that such a move by Armenia would be crossing the red line, which still detains Azerbaijan from more forceful and radical steps in respect of the release of its lands.\u201d Sadikhov further stated: \u201cThe Armenian leadership understands that by recognizing the independence of the separatist regime, it will radicalize and exacerbate the situation, and enrage international organizations and regional powers.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
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Despite the potentially complicating consequences of Artsakh\u2019s recognition, Armenians worldwide enthusiastically support the independence of the Republic of Artsakh. However, it would be preferable that such resolutions be brought to the parliament\u2019s consideration only after securing the approval of all factions. Otherwise, when a handful of opposition parliamentarians place this issue on the agenda against the majority\u2019s wishes, it appears that their whole purpose is partisan political gain, and sends the wrong signal to Azerbaijan and countries around the world that Armenia is against Artsakh\u2019s independence.<\/b><\/p>\n
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Furthermore, the opponents of such resolutions are typically accused of siding with Azerbaijan on this critical issue, thereby undermining Armenian efforts to secure international recognition for the Republic of Artsakh.<\/b><\/p>\n
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A more preferable strategy for supporting Artsakh\u2019s independence would be to strengthen the Republic of Armenia politically, economically, and militarily so that its leaders would not have to be too concerned about international condemnation and sanctions, whenever they decide it is the opportune time to recognize the Republic of Artsakh.<\/b><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Since every Armenian around the world passionately upholds the interests of Artsakh (Karabagh), many wonder why the Government of Armenia has not officially recognized its independence from Azerbaijan. \u00a0 Armenia\u2019s leaders are concerned that recognizing Artsakh\u2019s independence prematurely would undermine the peace process with Azerbaijan and possibly subject Armenia to international pressure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":774085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}