An interview with Baroness Caroline Cox

By
Vahram Emiyan

19 August 2009

Baroness Caroline Cox is a member of the British House of Lords. She is also the founder and CEO of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (also known as HART) organization. She has and continues to campaign for humanitarian causes in Nagorno Karabagh, East and West Burma, East Timor, India, Nigeria, southern Sudan and northern Uganda. She also chairs The British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group.

In spite of her very busy schedule Baroness Cox honored me by granting me the following interview:

Vahram Emiyan: As Chair of The British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group what is your assessment of the British-Armenian relations?

Baroness Caroline Cox: I believe that British Armenian relations are positive and I was very encouraged when the British Government decided to invest in a new Embassy in Yerevan.  Clearly there are major British commercial interests in Azerbaijan with BP's massive investment and British support for Turkey's entry into the EU.  These factors all form part of a complex equation where it is impossible to isolate one part.

V. Emiyan: In an interview with “Today’s Zaman” Turkish newspaper (published on 13 May) British Ambassador to Turkey Nick Baird said that “we are hugely keen to help solve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, and we are very supportive of the Minsk process”. In what way can Britain help to solve this issue?

Baroness Cox: I was encouraged in the very early days of the war between Azerbaijian and Karabakh when Britain actively helped to initiate the CSCE later to become the OSCE, and with the development of the MINSK process.  My hope is that Britain will, along with other members of the international community, respect the right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh to play a full part in decisions concerning their own future.

     
V. Emiyan: In the early 1990’s you were very actively involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Looking back at those years, which incident has impressed you the most?

Baroness Cox: It is difficult to select one incident.  I think the one which shocked me most deeply was the gratuitous barbarity perpetrated by Azeri forces in the massacre of Maragha.  I have also been subsequently concerned by ways in which Azerbaijan has tried to interpret and publicize its interpretation of events at Khodjaly, which seemed perhaps to be an attempt to detract attention away from the crimes they committed at Maragha and to blame the Armenians for alleged  crimes against humanity.  I believe that a full and honest interpretation of events at Khodjaly would not warrant this interpretation and Azerbaijan should be taken to account for the very real war crimes its people committed in Maragha, for which I have evidence.

V. Emiyan: After all these years how do you view the situation in the region?

Baroness Cox: I think the situation in the region is still cause for great concern.  Azerbaijan's mounting expenditure on its military budget, together with its belligerent  and hostile propaganda, are not helpful at a time when there is a need for confidence-building and a manifest willingness to promote a solution which, in my view, respects the rights of the Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination.

    
V. Emiyan: It would be very interesting to read about your experience during those years. Do you intend to write a book about those years?

Baroness Cox: I have already written a publication, together with my colleague, John Eibner, about the war in Nagorno Karabakh: "Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh".  Currently, my own work takes me to many other people suffering in ways similar to those experienced by the Armenian people in Karabakh during war and in the aftermath to conflict; for example Burma, Sudan, Northern Nigeria, North Uganda and Timorleste.  I therefore do not have time to write another book about the Karabakh conflict, although the tragedy itself and its aftermath, together with the need for a political solution, are still matters of great concern.  However, anyone interested in my concerns and experiences can read the two biographies: "Baroness Cox: Voice for the Voiceless" and "Baroness Cox: Eyewitness to a Broken World".