ARMENIA NEVER TO GIVE AWAY KARABAKH, MINISTER SAYS

Arminfo
13 Mar 06

Yerevan, 13 March: Neither under the threat of war nor if war is
rejected, will Armenia give away territory. Official Yerevan is
ready to discuss the issues of territories and the safety of refugees
only and only when Azerbaijan recognizes the right of the people of
Karabakh to self-determination. Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan
Oskanyan said this in his replies to questions from the on-line
version of the newspaper Azg.

“Karabakh is Armenian land. Only Armenians have lived on that land
for thousands of years and they preserved their sovereignty. There are
no doubts here: this territory has never been part of Azerbaijan and
it will not be. Armenians have no territorial claims outside their
rights. Karabakh has not been part of Azerbaijan and cannot be.

Karabakh has been Armenian and will remain Armenian, especially as
Azerbaijan has no moral right to have any claims on Karabakh because
it lost it in the 1990s when it tried several times to put pressure
on the people of Karabakh militarily and even to subject them to
ethnic cleansing. If it had not been for resistance by Armenians,
there would be no Karabakh today,” Oskanyan recalled.

Speaking about compensations to Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia,
Oskanyan stressed that Armenia is ready to discuss this issue within
the framework of allocation of compensations by the Azerbaijani
government to 350,000-400,000 Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan.