S. SARGSIAN: TODAY PROBABILITY OF WAR IS NO GREATER THAN EVER
Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 11 2005
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN. Despite the bellicose mood of the
Azeri side, today the probability of war is no greater than ever. RA
Defence Minister Serge Sargsian expressed this opinion during a talk
with reporters on October 11.
S. Sargsian said that three years ago the Azeris were also speaking
about solving the problems using arm power, and how much thier present
statements correspond to reality will be evident in two months,
after the elections in Azerbaijan. The minister underlined the
existence of an element of election propaganda in these statements:
“Simply I cannot fully imagine the size of this element.”
Having read the media reports about the situation in Azerbaijan,
the minister took the view that the party lead by Ilham Aliev will
win in the elections.
Asked if this victory would be a real one, Serge Sargsian noted that
there may be violations but “great things cannot be done by rigging”.
In response to NT correspondent’ question, the minister said that
no increase in the tension at the Armenian-Azeri borderline has
been observed in connection with the upcoming elections. “Today’s
situation does not differ from the one existing, say, 2 or 5 months
ago. Compared with the situation 7 months ago, today is quite calm,”
Serge Sargsian stressed.
Speaking about the increase of Azerbaijan’s military budget, RA
Defence Minister noted that after a while the quantitative factor of
the budget changes into the qualitative one, but it is not yet clear
when it will happen. “No doubt it is dangerous when the enemy, or
rival, or neighbor has a budget several times greater than yours. But
there is also the problem of using this budget efficiently, various
forms of meeting the needs of the army,” Serge Sargsian noted.
“It would be most advantageous if we had comparable financial
possibilities. On the other hand, the difference in our budgets will
never become a reason for making any concessions,” RA Minister of
Defence stated.