Day.Az, Azerbaijan
March 5 2008

Armenian opposition leader’ "main battle to come" – Azeri political
expert

Text of interview with political expert Zardust Alizada

[Correspondent] Zardust muallim [mode of address], what is behind
surprise intensification on the front lines in Tartar and Kalbacar
districts? Why does Armenia need it?

[Alizada] I deeply regret for our soldiers who are dying there.
Nevertheless, I do not see far-reaching consequences of the
skirmishes. The Karabakh clique ruling over Armenia is completely
dependent on the USA, Russia and Europe, and they, in their turn, are
pursuing only a sole aim – to freeze the conflict. Here is the gang
of Kocharyan-Sargsyan, who has usurped power and is just making time!
They are happy about this – they view Armenia as their sinecure.

[Correspondent] What is your attitude towards [former Armenian
president] Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s appeal to wait till the state of
emergency is over? Is this step correct?

[Alizada] The matter is that Ter-Petrosyan is a decent, pragmatic and
clever man with his ethical norms and morals. He does not want to
send Armenian people under bullets of the Karabakh swines – who do
not eight or 80 of their own citizens are killed. At the same time,
the state of emergency will not continue eternally, so Levon
Ter-Petrosyan’s main battle is to come.

[Correspondent] What is his trump-card?

[Alizada] Apart from his doubtless personal qualities, it is a fact
that the Armenian society has split and the abyss is growing. The
cultural layer of the Armenians has been tired of supremacy of those
from Karabakh, those pseudo-patriots-roarers! What have those
babblers done for them?

At the same time, we should admit that the Armenian public is now
reaping fruits of its own mistakes. When in the early 1990s
Kocharyan, Sargsyan and others were killing Azerbaijanis many people
in Armenia were bashfully justifying them, saying it was necessary
for national interests. And now they started killing Armenians and
this is a clear manifestation of the existing bloody regime in
Armenia.

[Correspondent] Has the regime been allocated historically much time?

[Alizada] No, similar regimes are unproductive, ineffective and
unstable. If the Armenian diaspora and the USA stop giving money to
Armenia, these authorities will burst like a soap-bubble. The
Karabakh clique exists at the expense of this money. As soon as
geopolitical realities change – they will be ousted.

Kocharyan himself admitted that he delivered 15,000 Karabakh
residents and appointed them to senior posts. This means there are
maximum 70,000 residents in Karabakh, plus 40,000-45,000 people leave
Armenia annually. How do you call it? You are right – a catastrophe!