In 1997, it seemed to me that it is possible to achieve peace with Azerbaijan through reciprocal compromise. Maybe it really was not excluded at that time. But over these years, I have changed my opinion about anything, at least, under this leadership of Azerbaijan, it is not possible to reach an agreement with the neighboring country. I do not imagine of any peace program irrespective of how much it is “Armenophile” or “defeatist”, which Azerbaijan after five minutes of the agreement will not violate. I think that 100 percent of the population of Artsakh and Armenians thin so, maybe 97 percent. 20 years ago, the percentage of these pessimists in Armenia was lower.
Some people say that no need to negotiate with Azerbaijan. I do not think so, the alternative of missing negotiations, in this case, is the large-scale war. But to negotiate about what? I think only about the cease-fire. When there is no cease-fire when people are dying almost every day, how is it possible to debate about this-or-that suggestion of the peace process or a road map? When the Azerbaijani leaders are saying every day that they are planning to destroy our country, when the today’s strategic task of the two neighboring states is to eliminate Armenia (including Artsakh), so whether the conversations about any philosophy for the settlement are not hypocrisy. Even if some “principles” are adopted, then how they are going to implement them. The public opinion can be completely ignored in Azerbaijan, but it is not possible in Armenia and Artsakh. Hence, no “principle” will function as of today.
And the most important thing is that it makes no sense to “ask for justice” from anybody: the Minsk Group co-chairs, Russians and Americans. All those who call on the “parties” to be restraint perfectly know who is the one who escalates the situation and why. But since they do not absolutely care for the peace, they are playing their games by limiting to sending formal condolences to the families of the victims.
No need not only “expect security” from anybody, but also to accuse anybody; if we were in their place, we would have done the same. Simply, we need to keep in mind that we are living in war conditions, it’s not a large-scale but a real war. In this war, no one will fight instead of us: neither “Russians” nor the West will protect us.
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But the war situation does not imply restrictions on freedom for the sake of “unity” of a lie. On the contrary, any illegal restriction on the will of our citizens makes us weaker. Rewording the words of the great poet, it can be said that our security is in our freedom.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
