Yesterday the whole Establishment gathered in the Ministry of Defense. In his speech, President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan talked about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and Azerbaijan’s recent behavior. In particular, S. Sargsyan said that the Azeri people would still not be ready for peaceful coexistence for a long time, and disseminating Armenophobia in Azeri society was a serious threat to the security in the region. Then the president warned and reminded: “The Karabakh people have never reconciled themselves with the illegal action taken by Stalin, natives of Karabakh have never considered themselves citizens of Azerbaijan; they have never reconciled themselves with the decision of annexation by Azerbaijan.” During a conversation with www.aravot.am, representatives of different political forces deemed Serzh Sargsyan’s strong speech positive and described his statements as an adequate response to Azerbaijan’s policy.
Armen Martirosyan, a deputy chairman of the Heritage Party executive committee, said in this regard: “What Serzh Sargsyan said is not enough, since Raffi Hovhannisyan has said many times what steps the Armenian side should take. I think Serzh Sargsyan did the right thing in the sense that Aliyev’s rhetoric is a policy of Armenophobia; using that rhetoric, he prepares the society not for peace, but for war. It is good that Serzh Sargsyan says it now, but the Heritage Party and Raffi Hovhannisyan said many years ago that one should give up on the Madrid Principles, recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, Nagorno-Karabakh should return to the negotiating table, and the main guarantor of our security were we ourselves. Unfortunately, all this is said now. It is good that they come closer to some ideas of Raffi Hovhannisyan in the course of time, use the terms he used.
“I think this step of Serzh Sargsyan is a positive one, regardless of the fact that the government took it. The president had to make speeches about the very situation and in the Armenian interest. Therefore, when the president makes such a speech, it is positive anyway.”
Gurgen Yeghiazaryan, a member of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), stated: “Azerbaijan has been obviously pursuing a policy of Armenophobia for the past decade. The press, the television have been mobilized to rebuke Armenians. They were called Caucasian Tartars at the time. Now those fools’ appetite has grown and they make Yerevan an Azeri territory etc. Today small drones controlled from land fly on the Armenia-Iran border. They photograph and examine our border. Those rogues have killed a young man on the border once again. But our response is not adequate. President Aliyev himself rebukes Armenians instead of solving his internal problems. This is not Armenian elections so that I can say that they have been rigged, election bribes have been given. This is perhaps the first adequate step in foreign policy. This is not football diplomacy, where we suffered a crushing defeat; these are not protocols, when we kneeled before the Turks. Now the ball is in our court, but it is the European ball covered with pricks, and if we touch it, it will explode. This is a response to an impudent person. At the end of the day, one should say something about any impudent behavior. I welcome that step.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
