Irina Ghaplanyan

Do you expect progress in the Karabagh settlement during this year?

Unfortunately, I do not foresee any progress in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement this year mainly due to the upcoming parliamentary elections in November in Azerbaijan. Mutual concessions is what it takes for the settlement to move forward, but none of the political parties participating in the elections would propose any concessions as they would lose political dividends in the eyes of their constituents.

There is an opinion that representatives of culture and youth can do even more in the Karabagh settlement than politicians. Do you think that intensification of such visit’s exchanges can create more positive atmosphere between Azerbaijanis and Armenians?

Undoubtedly. The NK process is politically “overdosed” and largely exhausted. We constantly hear military rhetoric from Azeri politicians, but I doubt that they will send their sons to risk their lives for the war that they are advocating. Moreover, this rhetoric deepens the distrust that Armenians in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh have towards Azerbaijan’s leaders. We need to bring the human element into the settlement process, and this is exactly why members of youth and culture organizations must get involved. Through interaction with each other the youth of both nations will realize that the enemy that the political discourse in each respective country paints, is actually a fellow human being with largely the same social and economic problems. The injection of human element in this process is crucial, as it will not only offer more avenues for communication, but also ensure that military rhetoric would gradually become unpopular and through this process you create an environment for the empowerment of civil society. 

Catholicos Garegin II participated at an inter-religious summit in Baku on April 26th, it was his first visit to Azerbaijan. Do you share hopes that this visit and dialog can bring the two nations together?

Yes, I hope that this dialog will not be a one time but a recurring event. All religions share some basic humane principles, of which crucial in the case of NK settlement are the value of human life and the significance of compromise. So I do believe that religious leaders, carrying the respective authorities in their countries and advocating peaceful resolution of the NK conflict, indeed could positively influence the peace process. 

Garegin II and leader of Azeri Muslims A.Pashazadeh supported a dialog between religious leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Both sides say that the Karabakh conflict has no religious base. Anyway what kind of role can play religious leaders in the settlement?

Indeed, the NK conflict is largely of ethnic base. Now, we can exacerbate the conflict by accentuating the religions differences, but it is really encouraging to witness the exact opposite process, whereby the religious leaders engage in a discourse of commonality, which advocates that, indeed, any religion preaches peace. And this is exactly the role that, hopefully, the religious leaders will adopt and preach what they are called to preach – that is, peace.

W.W.
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