"AZERBAIJAN CAN NOT START WAR IN COMING 20 YEARS," POLITICIAN LEVON
MELIK-SHAHNAZARIAN STATES

YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, NOYAN TAPAN. The process of the Karabakh
settlement entered at present a new stage when the Co-Chairmen’s
"imagination run short" and the problem is put on shoulders of the
three parties: Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan. Politician
Levon Melik-Shahnazarian expressed such an opinion at the August
25 press conference. In his words, today "the economy of Azerbaijan
was so involved in the European economy" that the country lost its
independence and may not "make any decision." The speaker mentioned
that till now the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen’s task was not to
allow re-start of the war as it is not advantageous for big states
having their own interests in the region. And, as the Baku-Jeihan oil
pipeline will be the property of the British Petroleum company till
2026, according to the politician’s words, Azerbajian can not start
a war in coming 20 years. In his words, Baku was simply prohibited
to make even an attempt to solve the Karabakh issue in the military
way. Touching upon return of territories being under control of
the Armenian armed forces, in the name of peace or defining the
NKR status, the speaker said: "The only reasoning based on which a
territory may be returned, is the one that no Armenians have lived
in those territories during the recent few dozens of years. If we
may lead negotiations for returning land based on that reasoning,
then it means that we give up, from the legal and moral viewpoints,
all those territories where no Armenians live, both in Western and
Eastern Armenia." In L.Melik-Shahnazarian’s words, in the 20th century
the Armenian people three times struggled with the Caucasian Tatars:
in 1904-1905, 1918-1920 and 1988-1994, and "three times we reached
successes in the war field, but then, at the negotiations table, we
lost territories, so, our every victory ended with loss of Armenian
territories." According to the speaker’s words, Armenia must take
lessons from all those, and now, when Azerbaijan is not ready for a
war, the Armenian side must make its demands stricter at the expected
September meeting of Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

L.Melik-Shahnazarian expressed an opinion, that Armenians, as an
eastern people, must see in the role of a strategic partner such a
country which has rich civilization. Responding the question "Can
Iran be such a country?" the politician said: "The Persian nation is
our natural ally but we have religious problems with Persians which
are artificially strained in our days in all over the world."

He stated that besides Iran, Russia, Belarus, Syria as well as Iraq
can also be potential allies of Armenia.