MINISTER: SITUATION IN ARMENIA NO THREAT TO ITS SECURITY

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 20, 2007 Tuesday 6:38 PM MSK

Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian rejected the idea that the
domestic political situation in Armenia constitutes a threat to the
security of Armenia or Nagorno- Karabakh.

The Armenian armed forces must play their role as a source of extra
confidence for Armenia’s government at talks to settle the Armenian-
Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is de facto an
independent state, Sarkisian told reporters in the Nagorno-Karabakh
capital, Stepanakert, on Tuesday.

At a ceremony in Stepanakert on Tuesday marking the 19th anniversary
of the start of Nagorno-Karabakh’s drive for secession from Azerbaijan,
Sarkisian awarded the Order of Tigran the Great to the Nagorno-Karabakh
army for its "great services to the country."

At one of the anniversary events, young people marched through
Stepanakert carrying an enormous Nagorno-Karabakh flag and
chanting demands for the international recognition of the enclave’s
independence.

On February 20, 1988, the Nagorno-Karabakh legislature decided to ask
the parliament of the then Soviet Union to remove it from Azerbaijan’s
jurisdiction and make it part of Armenia.