Armenpress

ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS NO RIFT BETWEEN HIM AND PRESIDENT

YEREVAN, JULY 1, ARMENPRESS: Armenian defense minister Serzh Sarkisian
shrugged off today media allegations that the country’s top leaders have
schemed a coup d’etat “to stage” president Kocharian’s resignation and hand
the power to him.
“Robert Kocharian will stay in his office until the last second of his
term,” Sarkisian told reporters today after a graduation ceremony at a
Yerevan military academy. “Talking about pre-term presidential election is
simply meaningless and these allegations are just fresh attempts to drive a
wedge between the president and defense minister,’ Sarkisian said adding
that he did not care about that talk.
Sarkisian was asked to comment on several out-of-parliament minor
parties’ announcements that they would support him should he decide to make
a presidential bid. “There are still three years ahead of next election and
so far I have made no decision about my intentions,” Sarkisian said, but did
not deny that he may run for presidency. Asked to comment on Azerbaijani
president Ilham Aliyev’s statement that he was ready to provide Karabakh
Armenians with broad autonomy together with security guarantees and
privileges, if Nagorno-Karabakh were brought back under its jurisdiction,
Sarkisian said Aliyev Junior was late.
“This statement should have been made by his father some 20 years ago,
when it could have some value, but today these are just words,” he said,
reiterating Armenia’s official position on how the long-standing dispute
should be resolved, which he said are that Karabakh cannot be part of
Azerbaijan, it must have an overland connection with Armenia and there must
be clear-cut security guarantees for its population, admitting, however,
that the conflict could be resolved only through bilateral compromises.
Armenian defense minister then downplayed Azerbaijan’s declared drive to
drastically increase its military spending up to $300 million this year from
$175 last year, saying Armenia has sufficient resources to ward off any
Azeri encroachment. “Armenia and Azerbaijan are not the USA and former
Soviet Union to plunge into an arms race, especially now when there are
indications of a peaceful resolution,” he said.