MATHEW BRYZA LIFTS VEIL OF SECRECY FROM COORDINATED PRINCIPLES ON KARABAKH.

AZG Armenian Daily #113, 16/06/2007

This article is mistitled, the title should have been: Mathew Bryza and the rest of the mediators "successfully or lucratively" coerce/convince Armenia to surrender/capitulate. This is the same Bryza, the Co-Chair of the Minsk Group who earlier this year as per Azerbaijani "Azertag" agency Mediamax report said: "We aspire to develop programs which connect all countries along the East-west corridor… and he concluded by saying "If Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey want to build a railway, (that bypasses Armenia*) naturally we cannot mind." I don’t exactly understand what "naturally" connotes. My interpretation is we Americans will pretend to be blind, deaf and dumb and allow Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia make Armenia economically non-viable and eventually cease to exist," as long as we, USA don’t provide the funds."

If Bryza and his gang are such skilled mediators, let them first persuade Turkey to make reparations for committing the Armenian Genocide, misappropriating 9/10 of the territory of historic Armenia, causing colossal number of deaths and destruction that continue to date, for not allowing to renovate the small number of functioning Armenian and non-Armenian churches, for remaining unpunished for 92 years, and for 92 years profiting from the blood drenched Armenian soil, property and wealth.

In addition Let Bryza make the current US administration officially recognize the Armenian Genocide instead of every year going through the contortions to find close but not accurate words to describe the Armenian genocide.

On May 30, 2007, in an interview by Russian REGNUM News Agency titled Armenia cannot constantly "bluff" in the regional geopolitical game: Armen Ayvazyan Doctor of Political Sciences, Director of the "Ararat" Center for Strategic Research (www.ararat-center.org) among other things has said:

"Hence, the liberated territory is a guarantee of geopolitical weight and international authority of modern Armenia. It is a precondition for its military, water, food, energy, psychological, and, in the near future, demographic security. It is a part of the Armenian homeland in terms of history, cultural heritage and physical geography. The liberated territory is the means for restoring the historically traumatized psyche of the Armenians. It is a medium for the true meaning of Armenia. Finally, the liberated territory is a just, though minimal, compensation for the Armenian territorial, cultural, material and human losses and sufferings caused by the Turkish and Azerbaijani genocides, a compensation which has been attained by Armenian blood."

The first thing that Aliev and Azerbaijan should do is return illegally acquired territory of Nakhichevan to Armenia, the rightful owners, before they ask Armenians to make any territorial concessions on the liberated lands. The Azerbaijanis should make reparations to Armenians for starting the Artsakh (misnamed Karabakh,) war and causing tens of thousands of deaths and massive destruction. The Azerbaijanis should make reparations for the hundreds and thousands of properties that they confiscated from Azerbaijani Armenians that "ran away with their lives and left everything behind." Azerbaijanis should forget that we will allow refugees return to Artsakh and the strategically important surrounding territories, and let Azerbaijanis forget about another referendum. Because in case Azerbaijan and/or the negotiators have forgotten or are unaware, on September 2, 1991 the people of the autonomous Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) region while under the yoke of Azerbaijan, officially declared that they were going to have a referendum and on December 10, 1991 the official Referendum took place and the people of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) chose to be independent. Therefore the OFFICIAL referendum took place, the people spoke loud and clear that they want to be free. IT IS DONE and OVER.

Eight years ago the murder of 48 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo became the turning point to bring the US-led NATO to the rescue of Kosovo’s Albanians. As per June 5, 2007 LA Times article "Kosovo likely future cuts two ways and I quote: "There is a certain inevitability to the cause of Kosovo’s independence. Backed unabashedly by the U.S. and much of Europe, the breakaway Kosovo region dominated mostly by ethnic Albanian Muslims will almost certainly be allowed to secede from Serbia in the coming weeks."

On June 10, 2007, President Bush during his visit to Albania has called for quick action to turn Kosovo into an independent nation. He has also said that diplomats’ efforts did not succeed in changing the status of Kosovo which is overwhelmingly ethnic Muslim Albanian, "sooner rather than later, you’ve got to say enough is enough, Kosovo is independent. There just cannot be continued drift"

Here one wonders why Bush does not show the same support to Artsakh’s which is populated by 100% ethnic Christian Armenians, who without US and NATO led forces liberated Artsakh. One also wonders if this was one of President Bush’s dyslexic moments and he confused ethic Armenians and Ethnic Albanians, (a difference of 3 letters) or he thought they were the same people.

(To digress for a moment, one wonders how many more hundreds and thousands of people should die in Darfur before there is another US-led NATO or any other force to stop the genocide there.)

Back to the Artsakh negotiations. The mediators are forcing us to "exchange empty promises with most if not all the liberated territories including the independent Republic of Artsakh. Allow the Azeri’s to return and most likely "also allow them to illegally bring tens of thousands of others," and in 10 years or as soon as the Azerbaijanis become the majority, they will allow another referendum, and guess what "suddenly" Artsakh will not want to secede, and United States and others will "approve." If our government/we allow this to happen, it will be the beginning of the end of Armenia, and another catastrophic situation that will be even worse than when the treaty of Sevres was replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne.

In conclusion, the duty of our government is to protect Armenia and Armenians from enemies, pseudo-friends and counterfeit mediators. I have yet to see a country that is so eager to return an illegally occupied territory let alone a small part of its liberated territory. One wonders how come during negotiations and /or various opportune moments our government always acts dumb and refrains from asking the return of the territories of Nakhichevan, and/or 9/10th of the historic territory of Armenia illegally occupied by Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The more we "give in the more they will ask and take," and they will only stop until there is no more Armenia, and thus fulfill their goal of Pan-Turkism.

I never thought I would quote President Bush, but as he said in Kosovo, "sooner rather than later, you’ve (we’ve) got to say enough is enough, Karabak and most of the liberated territory around it is independent. There just cannot be continued drift." And if Bryza and his co-mediators are still eager to do a productive work, I suggest that they stop their unjust, one-sided Artsakh peace talks, and work on Turkey and make them pay for their ancestors unspeakable crimes and compel them to make territorial and financial reparations.

Bedros H. Kojian, M.D.,Santa Ana, The Armenian Observer June 6, 2007

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.