“I still do not understand if the government has those numbers but it isn’t saying anything, or if it does not. Let me be honest: I do not know the number of losses, POWs, or MIA soldiers,” the Armenia alliance’s candidate for prime minister, Robert Kocharyan, said during an election campaign in the Metsamor city of the Armavir province in response to a citizen’s question.
“It is unacceptable to me that our society does not know those numbers eight months after the war. If the numbers exist, we will publish them the day after coming to power. If they do not, work needs to be done. But we will honestly say that there are this many fallen and MIA soldiers, and this many people’s fates are unknown to us. The numbers need to be open. This is not an issue where you can cause people to have doubts. I do not understand why this is happening, and I do not see any logic in all of this,” Robert Kocharyan said.
A man who was born in Martakert but who lived in Metsamor for the past 46 years asked Robert Kocharyan what hope we should have for Artsakh’s future. “I have a sufficient basis to believe that we are able to restore Artsakh to the former NKAO borders. The biggest issue with this statement is that the Russian troops are temporary. In 4 years and 6 months, Azerbaijan has the right to demand that the Russian troops withdraw from Artsakh.
This creates a huge problem. First, we need to receive a resolution to this problem, as well as the assurance that this will not take place because this creates a lot of certainty for Artsakh’s future in general. I trust that we will be able to move somewhere. That’s all for now. We are entering the negotiations process from a weak position, and I connect the strengthening and restoring of the army with this process. The faster we are able to get back on our feet, the stronger our position in the negotiations process will be,” Robert Kocharyan said.
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Nelly Grigoryan
