ARMENIAN FIELD COMMANDER: "IT IS TIME TO CONSIDER KARABAKH AS PART OF ARMENIA, AS ONE OF ITS REGIONS"

Today.Az
29 October 2008 [16:16]

On October 30 Armenian field commander Jirair Sefilyan will declare
about the creation of a new political initiative in Yerevan.

Sefilyan intends to establish the union of political powers and
personalities, standing against the territorial concessions in the
resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

One of the organizers of the operation on Shusha occupation, Jirair
Sefilyan considers that it is time for Armenia to change its attitude
towards Nagorno Karabakh "as towards an independent state and consider
Karabakh to be one of the regions of Armenia".

"We must turn the page of history, when beginning from 1991 we
have been considering Karabakh as an independent state. Whom are we
deceiving? The whole world knows that the army of "Nagorno Karabakh
Republic" is part of the armed forces of Armenia, that the Nagorno
Karabakh budget is financed from the budget of Armenia, political
leaders of "NKR" are appointed from Yerevan. It is time to regard
Karabakh as part of Armenia, as one of its regions. Karabakh should be
treated as a territory of Armenia, which must not make any concessions
in the negotiation process", said Jirair Sefilyan.

He also considers that Russia has become a country, which is recently
putting the biggest pressure on Armenia in the issue of the territorial
concessions to Azerbaijan.

"Russia has recently imposed a strong pressure on Armenia, making
its leadership to agree on territorial concessions, which was obvious
during Medvedev’s recent visit to Armenia and from talks of the Russian
President with Serzh Sargsyan. Lavrov’s statement can be added here
as well.

They offer to replace the Armenian armed forces in the liberated lands
with international or Russian. Yet, the Russian military presence in
Armenia is one thing and we have nothing against it and their presence
in the liberated lands is another. We will not allow the repetition
of the case.

Russia must not think that it can do whatever it wants to Armenia
under such a weak current leadership of our country. We will soon
mobilize all our forces and speak against it", said Sefilyan.

He also considers that there is a variant of the resolution of the
Karabakh problem without territorial concessions by Armenia.

"Tomorrow I will declare creation of a new political initiative, to
be called "Union". The aim of this initiative is unification of all
political powers, personalities, the Armenian people, standing against
the territorial concessions in the Karabakh conflict. The idea of this
union lies in unification and joint resolution of the Karabakh problem.

The conflict resolution should not be left to the illegitimate powers,
which do not enjoy people’s support and, therefore, are unable to
resist external pressure. We will also provide the political, legal
and historical grounds for the coalition", said Sefilyan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress