Armenia needs revolution to resolve Karabakh, opposition leader says

Noyan Tapan news agency
15 Apr 05

YEREVAN

“Armenia’s foreign policy is in deadlock and in the first place as
regards Artsakh [Karabakh],” a member of the political council of the
Anrapetutyun (Republic) Party and former Armenian prime minister, Aram
Sarkisyan, said at the party’s congress on 15 April.

He said that no country mentions the right of the Karabakh people to
self-determination today, everyone only speaks about the need to
preserve Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Sarkisyan said that
things have reached a point where the international community says:
“Return the lands and then we will discuss Artsakh’s security.”

Sarkisyan said that all these show that the incumbent authorities have
neither resources nor the right to resolve the Artsakh issue. In his
opinion, no document signed by these authorities can be valid not only
because these authorities do not want or cannot resolve this issue,
but also because the international community does not want to conduct
negotiations with the “illegitimate” authorities.

Sarkisyan believes that since this problem has not been resolved,
Armenia has been sidelined from all regional programmes and turned
into an enclave: “This situation will be reinforced after returning
the territories because the military victory has not been backed up
politically over the 10 years of truce.”

He thinks that the Karabakh conflict will be settled favourably for
Armenians in case “there is more democracy in Armenia and Nagornyy
Karabakh than in Azerbaijan”.

“Armenia needs a revolution also to resolve the Karabakh conflict.
What is important is not to allow the leadership of the country change
the authorities and not to create conditions for any party to regard
the revolution as its monopoly,” Sarkisyan said.