Vahe H Apelian - Vաhe Յ Աpeliաn
“War or Peace, Time to get Serious” is president Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s (LTP) position paper for the resolution of the Karabagh conflict, he published on November 1, 1997, where he advocated concessions for resolving the lingering Karabagh conflict.
LTP’s negotiating position outlined in that document created an uproar in Armenia and resulted in the palace coup engineered by Robert Kocharian, Serzh Sargsyan, Vazken Sarkissian and Vartan Oskanian leading to president LTP’s resignation a few months later, on February 3, 1998.
In a recent posting on his Facebook page, Tatul Hagopian labelled that palace coup a political crime and wrote, “in 1997-1998, a political crime was committed in Armenia, as a result of which the historical opportunity to settle the Artsakh conflict was aborted.” (see note). From there on “Serzh Sargsyan, like Kocharyan before him, each for ten years and Pashinyan for two years, failed to act decisively. Consecutively they missed the opportunities to settle the Artsakh conflict.” (see note).
The rest is another tragic page of the much tortured Armenian history, the loss of Artsakh. Historians will study this catastrophic loss from here and on and certainly will refer to the LTP’s historic political stand where he noted that, “Rejection of compromise and maximalism (striving to achieve the maximum and not the possible) is the shortest way to the complete destruction of Karabakh and deterioration of the situation in Armenia. It is not about giving or not giving Karabakh. It is about keeping Karabakh Armenian. It was inhabited by Armenians for 3000 years and it should be inhabited by Armenians after 3000 years.”
The Azeri military incursion on April 1, 2016, seemed to have changed the mind of Serzh Sargsyan, the last architect of 1997 palace coup against LTP, the Velvet Revolution would unseat from power. He seemed to have realized the merit of the LTP’s position. Tatul Hagopyan quoting Arthur Tovmasyan (Armenian: Արթուր Թովմասյան), who was the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh from 21 May 2020 to 7 August 2023, noted the following. In an interview Artur Tovmasyan had at the end of 2020, he has said the following: “After the April 2016 war, President Serzh Sargsyan and President Bako Sahakyan met with 22 deputies. Serzh Sargsyan urged us to agree to the surrender of seven regions. We said that the Madrid principles do not express the fundamental interests of the Armenian people. He also said that you have heard the song "Kars, Kars" many times, if you refuse the principles of Madrid, then one day you will hear the song "Stepanakert, Stepanakert", Serzh Sargsyan said it bluntly. I remembered those words of Serzh Sargsyan on November 9, when Stepanakert was empty and deserted, and the enemy was several kilometers away from the city."
Unfortunately, Serzh Sargsyan, much like Robert Kocharian before him, and later Nikol Pashinyan, did not have the political will and did not act responsibly as statesmen to bring the Artsakh conflict to a settlement. Historic Artsakh is depopulated of its native Armenian inhabitants.
However, history will not exonerate president LTP from responsibility for the loss of the Mountainous Nagorno Karabagh Oblast and the depopulation of historic Artsakh from its native Armenian inhabitants. LTP was, after all, the leader of the Karabagh Committee that sounded the battle cry for unification. Instead of pursuing a negotiated settlement for the Mountainous Nagorno Karabakh, LTP let the first Karabagh war be waged under his watch, instead of resorting to negotiated settlement. The first Artsakh war ended with a ceasefire agreement (the Bishkek Protocol) between the warring parties that came into effect on 12 May 1994. The Bishkek Protocol was a ceasefire agreement, signed by the representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Republic of Mountainous Karabakh, and Russia on May 5, 1994, in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
LTP’s “War or Peace, Time to get Serious” position paper came about, as stated, on November 1, 1997, three years after the halting of the hostilities and after many violations along the border.
The palace coup engineered by the political quartet faled. But we surely will never know if it was ever possible to attain a resolution to the Mountainous Karabagh Oblast that would have the native Armenians continue inhabiting their native land, for another 3000 years, as LTP wrote in his paper and laid the grounds for his negotating advocacy. The Turkic mindset seemed to have long determined all along, to force the native Armenians out of the Artsakh and have Artsakh incorporated in Azerbaijan. It could be that no Armenian leader could have avoided this eventuality with a world colluding with Azerbaijan.
I could not find that historic document translated into English in the internet. Consequently, I resorted to translating it and will post it in segments.
TO BE CONTINUED
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