Caretaker Foreign Minister of Artsakh Davit Babayan says it is important for the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno Karabakh to receive a mandate so that along with a peacekeeping mission they get the authority to impose peace.
Russian peacekeepers must have authority to impose peace – Davit Babayan
STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 16, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: “If not for the Russian peacekeeping mission Artsakh would long be destroyed,” Babayan told reporters. “On the other hand we see that the peacekeeping mission’s potential, which directly derives from the mandate, must be strengthened,” he said.
Babayan said they have offers from this perspective and they have voiced them in various instances – first of all the number of the Russian peacekeepers must be increased. Babayan said that the 1,980 peacekeepers are not able to fully implement that function.
“In the Shushi section there are only a few peacekeepers deployed. Therefore first of all the number must be increased. Second, they must receive an international mandate. This would mean that along with a peacekeeping mission they must have the authority to impose peace, like it happened in Kosovo, Bosnia. The peacekeeper is standing there, and if some group of people is approaching they are warned not to approach, if they continue doing so then force can be used,” Babayan said.
He said the Russian peacekeepers don’t have that authority and that’s why an international mandate must be issued.
Babayan said the fate of Artsakh is also the fate of the civilized world. “The democratic community can’t tolerate the destruction of an unrecognized democratic country by a totalitarian country. Thus, everyone must set aside their geopolitical preferences and act so that genocide doesn’t happen. And this is possible only with issuing that mandate,” Babayan said.
