ArmInfo News Agency, Armenia
Oct 26 2006

RA DM: KARABAKH CONFLICT MUST BE SETTLED IN PEACEFUL WAY BASED ON
MUTUAL COMPROMISES

The Karabakh conflict must be settled in a peaceful way based on the
mutual compromises. As the "Svoboda" Radio station informs, the RA
Defense Minister, Serzh Sarkissyan, said in a interview to "James "
Research Center, which carries out investigations for strategic and
security issues.

However, in S. Sarkissyan’s opinion, the policy, followed by
Azerbaijan, does not contribute to this. "The officials (of
Azerbaijan) talk today of war resumption. Their war expenses have
doubled during the last year", the Minister said.

S. Sarkissyan stated that Azerbaijan, according to estimations of
independent experts, cannot yet resolve the issue in a military way.
"If military operations recommence, Armenia will reach an advantage
again. Irrespective of the war result, it will be a strike for both
sides". As for Azerbaijan’s oil incomes, which it wants to use to
resolve the Karabakh conflict, S. Sarkissyan reminded that Azerbaijan
had also an advantage in 90th, concerning the number of Armed Forces
and a quantity of ammunition, inherited from the USSR.

"They had encircled Karabakh in 1992 and a few believed that we can
achieve success. Despite all the expectations from oil incomes, they
will not achieve the advantage now they had 14-15 years ago. The
Azerbaijan version of the conflict’s military settlement had failed
at that time and it will fail again. I hope Azerbaijan will refuse
this approach sooner or later", Sarkissyan said.

As for the Armenia-NATO relations, the RA DM has touched upon the
Turkey’s issue. According to him, the policy of Turkey had been
causing damage to the NATO authority in Armenia for a long time.

"The Russian military base in Armenia is created under conditions of
external threat for the Republic. Unfortunately, this threat did not
disappear unit now, since there is no noticeable improvement of the
Armenian-Turkish relations. Turkey keeps on blocking Armenia which is
a hostile action towards us. Turkey also supports Azerbaijan in the
Karabakh issue and improvement of our relations is stipulated for
Azerbaijan’s whim", S. Sarkissyan said.