Peace stays distant from Nagorno-Karabakh

Discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict throughout the four-day-long workshops in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi, both groups of journalists agree that “peace is quite far away from Nagorno-Karabakh.”

“Peace in Nagorno-Karabakh is necessary and is something that is required,” says one of the Armenian journalists, who also took part in the Nagorno-Karabakh war with Azerbaijanis that erupted in the early ‘90s. “Those people who did not fight a battle, they don't care, but those people who were there in the war, they know what it is. And I know Azerbaijanis do not want war either. Why do we need war then, if we have an option of peace?” said the Armenian journalist, asked to remain anonymous but slashing the status quo in the conflict that is unacceptable by both sides, as it produces nothing positive and effective, instead uncertainness and vagueness due to “no war, no peace” state in the region.  

Throughout the discussions the journalists had opportunities to share their views on the status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the efforts of keeping it intact and their experience at the front line between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the inhuman living condition of people from both sides that are obliged to live there under the bullets that leave both military personnel and civilians dead in the border skirmishes.  

“Young people are dying at the front line and no one is taking responsibility for that,” an Azerbaijani journalist said. Echoing the Azerbaijani journalist, another Armenian reporter commented: “Instead the presidents are meeting for five-six hours behind closed doors… Even for your relatives and friends you do not spare this much time… In return still there are no positive results as they always prefer to end in a draw.”

The issue is that people of both sides have already got used to everything, including the status quo. However, getting used to something does not mean that one really likes it or will continue to live with this state of affairs in the region forever. People are keeping their silence, because they are hopeless, as they don't see any alternatives.

To help/encourage people with cohabitation, coexistence, dialogue and reconciliation a wide range of international programs are being held in parallel and support to diplomatic efforts to reach a long-term political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Of course, we cannot dismiss the effectiveness of those programs especially in terms of direct communication, confidence-building and interactive conflict resolution between the two nations but the problem is that getting to peace seems to be a dream, as neither side would agree to make compromises. For each side peace is something that should be on their own conditions and “territory” is the leading condition of these.

However close you may get with Armenian representatives, when it comes to the issue of territory, it's all gone.

As the Armenian blogger from Nagorno-Karabakh said in Azerbaijani during the discussions “Torpaqdan pay olmaz” (Territory cannot be shared).

So, when the discussions are coming to the point of territory you are again turning over a new leaf and you have come to the point of reconciliation and dialogue is making a new start, politics gets into the issue.

As long as the peace agreement is not signed between the two nations the common people of both sides will not feel confident towards each other no matter what international efforts are put together for confidence-building measures, especially given the fact that those measures are mainly being taken among the people from the capital cities of both sides rather than between the communities of the Nagorno-Karabakh, some participants from both sides agree.

Another part of the journalists however say that before the final deal is made a joint confidence-building program should be suggested for people from both communities so as to establish a common understanding and so that people from both communities can trust each other. “A house cannot be built from the roof but from the bottom,” the Armenian blogger said, adding that no matter what agreement is signed, if those communities are not ready to welcome each other, nothing will work out and all efforts will fail.

“War will start again,” the Armenian journalist from Stepanakert (Khankendi in Azerbaijani), Nagorno-Karabakh, bracingly commented. “For example, I am meeting with you but I am not ready to live with you in a neighborhood,” she said, adding that she has lost her family members during the war years and it is hard for her to forgive and forget.

While she was continuing to elaborate on her speech, mainly expressing her objection to returning of the Azerbaijani community to Nagorno-Karabakh, I was thinking, “But it's not only the Armenian community that has lived through those tragedies; the Azerbaijani community has also shared those painful days. Everyone from both communities has lost at least one of their family members. Maybe the problem is just the closed borders. We both are human beings rather than wild animals. Why are we not able to find a common language to live again together peacefully?” What I think is that people just need to be slightly prepared, they will find their ways to live on, the main issue is to not hinder their way of living and thinking but to provide them with wide range of freedoms so that they are able to live together and to reintegrate into each other.