AGREEMENT ON GIVING MEGHRI HAS BEEN REVEALED

KarabakhOpen
10-02-2008 19:37:51

The Armenian presidential candidate, the first president of Armenia
Levon Ter-Petrosyan revealed information during the rally on February
9 which was kept secret from the society for about ten years. It
is the agreement on exchanging the Armenian region of Meghri with
the independence of Karabakh, a copy of which Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s
team has acquired and revealed in the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper on
February 9. Levon Ter-Petrosyan shared their information with several
tens of thousands of participants of the rally.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan presented the point of the agreement on exchanging
Meghri according to which the region of Meghri was to be given to
Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan was to give Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous
Region, as well as the regions of Shushi and Lachin to Armenia. Within
60 days after signing the agreement under international observation the
Armenian population of Meghri was to be moved to other territories of
Armenia, and Meghri was to be populated by the Azerbaijanis who became
refugees during the Karabakh conflict. The agreement also included
returning the regions of Aghdam, Fizuli, Zangelan, Jebrail, Kubatlu,
the liberated territories around Karabakh. Levon Ter-Petrosyan says
this agreement was offered to the Armenian government ten years ago,
and Robert Kocharyan, Vardan Oskanyan, and Serge Sargsyan, who was
minister of national security then, approved it.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that this agreement was not brought into
being thanks to Karen Demirchyan and Vazgen Sargsyan, who sacrificed
their lives for that. The first president says he is responsible for
his words.

According to him, if the agreement on giving Meghri had been released,
the investigation of October 27 would have viewed it among the motives
of assassination.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan tried to explain the danger of the agreement. At
first sight, by this agreement the territory of Armenia which is 30
thousand sq km would become 35 thousand sq km, the border of Armenia
would become longer, from 1200 to 1700 km, however we would lose
our border with Iran, which is vital to Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan
says, who wonders how Kocharyan, Oskanyan and Serge Sargsyan who were
one of the parties of the agreement did not realize, meanwhile they
should know the importance of the border with Iran during the war
for sustaining Armenia and winning victory. Levon Ter-Petrosyan says
in accordance with the agreement on Meghri most of the length of the
Armenian border would be with Turkey and Azerbaijan, enclosing Armenia
in a blockade, considering that most of the length of the border with
Georgia runs across areas populated with Azerbaijanis, which means
that Armenia would have a 40 km window with Javakheti. By revealing
this information Levon Ter-Petrosyan says it is up to the society to
decide how to describe the plan to give Meghri – treason or plot.

The first president says Heidar Aliyev was a wise political leader if
he wanted to sigh such agreement with Armenia, to exchange Karabakh
with Meghri, because he realized what destructive state Armenia would
appear in.

The people in Azerbaijan who opposed to this move of Aliyev were fools,
Levon Ter-Petrosyan says.

However, even though it has not been brought into being, the agreement
on the exchange of Meghri which Levon Ter-Petrosyan revealed still
poses threat to Armenia. Ter-Petrosyan focused on the circumstance that
this agreement separates the region of Shushi from NKAR, meanwhile
Shushi was an indivisible part of NKAR. Levon Ter-Petrosyan says the
Azerbaijanis have always tried to have them separated, but during
his office they failed, whereas under the present government the
Azerbaijanis have in fact reached their goal. According to Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, it will take Armenia great effort to eliminate this
circumstance for the separation of Shushi and NKAR has been practiced
internationally.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan also stated that the agreement poses other threat
to Armenia, however; he prefers to silence it not to prompt ideas
to Azerbaijan.