Regnum, Russia –
May 26 2006

Russian deputy speaker: `Russia has every reason to recognize
Artsakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transdnestr’

`The international situation has given us a positive example – if
Albanians receive the right to establish their own independent state
in the foreign territory, so ancient Armenian people must perhaps
receive the right to restore the territory;’ leader of the Russian
Liberal Democratic Party, Deputy Speaker of Russian State Duma
Vladimir Zhirinovsky is quoted by a REGNUM correspondent as stating
in Moscow, speaking at the third Russia’s Armenian Union (RAU)
Congress.

`Yes, we pity Serbs, but it is a positive signal for the
international community – it is a positive signal for Artsakh
(Nagorno Karabakh – REGNUM), for Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and
Transdnestr,’ Zhirinovsky continued. According to him, if the
international community recognizes Kosovo and Montenegro, Russia will
have every reason to recognize analogous territories, especially as
it has more rights for that, because these republics were parts of
the Russian Empire, and now they pretend to restore their legal
personalities. `It may not be denied – it is the international law,’
he stated.

As Vladimir Zhirinovsky stressed, addressing to the Russian Armenians
Union (RAU) Congress deputies and guests, `the Armenian people have
already been suffering for 100 years, and it is necessary to achieve
adoption of at least one international organization’s resolution on
returning territories to Armenian state by 2015, the 100th
anniversary of those awful events.’ `It is not enough to recognize
the Genocide; the territories should be returned. Those ones, who are
living there now, should be returned to Ashgabat and Tashkent – what
does one people need two states for? And territories should be
returned to Armenia and Kurdistan. Kurds are betrayed people too –
they have been expecting for 100 years,’ the LDPR leader said. Also,
he called the RAU to be more active in the Russian provinces and to
cooperate with Russian political and non-governmental organizations
in order to explain to young generation of Russians that `Armenians
are our brothers; they are Christians, and they have been living side
by side with Russians for hundreds of years.’ Zhirinovsky called on
the RAU to cooperate for realization of other socially vital
initiatives.