Karvajar Resident Displeased with OSCE MG Co-Chairs

“The [OSCE Minsk Group] Co-Chairs know very well what will happen with that government who hands over the liberated territories to the Turks,” said historian, political analyst and Karvajar resident Alexander Kananyan who spoke at a press conference today about his meetings with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Note that Karvajar is also known as Karvachar, Kalbajar or Kelbajar, and is an area outside of Nagorno-Karabakh, currently under NKR control.

The meetings took place days earlier during the OSCE MG Field Assessment Mission, which included a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Kananyan expressed his discontent with the behavior of the Co-Chairs, with whom he had private meetings. The fact that the Co-Chairs “reserve the right to come authorized to these areas” didn’t sit well with the historian. 

Meeting with the Co-Chairs, Kananyan said that their rights to the settled areas are indisputable, regardless of what promises the Co-Chairs make to Yerevan.

“We have no desire to leave this area, we are going to keep this area till the end, and Artsakh’s [i.e. Nagorno-Karabakh’s] Armenians will support us, so that we ruin criminal attempts at handing over the territories,” he said. 

He also said that “our authorities” (presumably, the Armenian authorities rather than the NKR authorities) and not “foreigners” should be blamed first and foremost for the uncertainty surrounding the NKR issue. Kananyan believes that the Co-Chairs are just passing time and delaying the process, which might take years.

According to the historian, only when there is a “normal government” will the NKR issue be resolved.