War veterans in Karabakh demand Armenian minister’s resignation

Arminfo
23 Mar 06

Yerevan, 23 March: A group of Karabakh officers, home guards and
veterans of the Karabakh war adopted a statement today demanding the
resignation of the Armenian defence minister and an end to talks on
the settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

The statement said that the reason for the political demand was
Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan’s remarks at an operational
meeting of the army command: “We did not liberate any land during the
war, all we have done is destroy weapon emplacements. What liberated
territories are we talking about?

Armenians had not lived there for the last 100 years. Which of you can
prove that Agdam was an Armenian town. The deployment of peacekeeping
troops is favourable to us”.

The statement said that at the time of the anti-Armenian hysteria in
Azerbaijan, statements such as the one made by the Armenian defence
minister, could undermine the army’s combativeness and sow a defeatist
attitude and panic among servicemen. They explained Sarkisyan’s
position by his presidential ambitions and said that “people who have
usurped the power have no right to represent the Armenian people or
Armenia and their further stay in power is fraught with fatal
consequences”.

“We will not allow anyone to sacrifice for their own political
ambitions our motherland for the liberation of which the best sons of
Armenia had shed their blood in the war imposed by Azerbaijan,” the
Karabakh war veterans said.