Stepan Safaryan, running for the parliamentarian nominated by the “Free Democrats” party list, mentioned in his speech at the party conference that let no one expect Nagorno-Karabakh’s international recognition with such weak Armenia. “It is possible to avoid war only through strong Armenia, even the paper solution of the Artsakh conflict will not result in the lasting settlement of the relations. Armenia needs security and progress but the political force that has brought the country to stand on the threshold of war is not the force that will bring this security and progress,” said Mr. Safaryan.
According to him, there are many provisions in the program of the “Free Democrats” about the fair cause of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, however, “let no one expect an international recognition with such weak Armenia, the problem here also lies in the strengthening of the country, and our relations with the neighboring countries should be settled based on the national interests and the protection of rights, in the framework of the international law but without questioning the already self-determination of the Karabakh people, the decolonization from the Soviet Azerbaijan without conditioning all of this with Azerbaijan’s political desires. Everybody is speaking about the Madrid principles but the recognition of the Nagorno-Karabakh due to these principles has become dependent on Azerbaijan’s will, we argue that the political component of the international recognition can be imposed to political timelessness but the grounds can never be dependent on the third country’s will … our army must comply with NATO standards because there are no better standards in the world regarding the concept of security and armed forces, if we want to hold the enemy back, we must have an army that complies with these standards.”
In Mr. Safaryan’s words, we do not have many options, either everything should be left in this course by which Armenia is already moving, or simply not to do anything and leave Armenia, or change Armenia’s direction and course, “We must make major decisions, for which we must have self-sufficient autocracy, the solution of our problems is inside us, the sovereignty must be restored through fair elections. Our citizens must have the freedom and the right back.”
