“Let no one believe that the Karabakh settlement process is over, let no one believe that the war has put an end to all the ambitions of the Armenian people. And the Armenian people have the ambition to have an independent state, a stable, secure, and developing country in this region, and the Armenian people will continue to fight for their independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and all international rights,” Artak Zakaryan, former Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia and member of the Supreme Body of the Republican Party of Armenia, stated at a press conference at Henaran Press Club, adding that this is Armenia’s thirty-year journey and the conviction that it is impossible to break an entire nation, even with a bloody war, was established based on the conclusions drawn from meetings and discussions.
Touching upon the policy pursued by the current government, Zakaryan added that although the people made a mistake at some point, our history has taken our people on much more difficult paths and we have been able to stand up, straighten our backs, and move forward with dignity. According to him, this is exactly what the messages of the third president Serzh Sargsyan referred to yesterday. “Yes, Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan and we have opportunities to get out of this seemingly impossible situation today. It is another thing that the so-called capitulated people do not see or do not want to see those opportunities. It is another thing that they are so scared or weak, even broken, that they are even afraid to talk about the most important issues – the occupied territories of Armenia, the aggressive policy of Azerbaijan. They are afraid to even properly celebrate the 30th anniversary of our people’s best child, the army. They are afraid to talk about the Artsakh settlement process, when the co-chairs talk about it from time to time. They are afraid to express any sound opinion in the Armenian-Turkish or Armenian-Azerbaijani direction. Instead, they continue to divide society and remove the feeling of guilt or responsibility through false manipulation.”
According to him, at yesterday’s press conference, Serzh Sargsyan spoke about a number of important directions from the Artsakh negotiation process, and also showed the opportunities that existed that the government did not use, entering a field that led to war without maintaining a solid basis for negotiations. He defended the legal interests of Armenia and Artsakh, as our political ambitions were in line with international legal norms. Artak Zakaryan agrees with President Sargsyan that the opportunities to return to the negotiation process and restore Armenia’s position are not lost today.
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The RPA figure considers that the way out of the current situation is for all the Armenian opposition forces to have a long and honest conversation with the society. He noted that those who once spoke about the Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora trinity do not speak about the Diaspora and Artsakh at all. They are afraid or have nothing to say, or they do not speak so as not to anger Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
