CEDING LIBERATED TERRITORIES IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR SAMVEL BABAYAN

Noyan Tapan

Dec 4, 2008

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 4, NOYAN TAPAN. "Today the superpowers of the
world carry out a life-and-death fight for an inch of land, and
Armenia is going to give land to its enemy," Samvel Babayan, the
former Defence Minister of Nagorno Karabakh, stated at the December
4 press conference. He affirmed that today, when Azerbaijan does
not speak about a concession to be done by it, Armenia should not
raise the issue of concessions. Instead, as S. Babayan emphasized,
the Armenian side should resettle the Armenians, who have run away
from Soviet Azerbaijan, in the liberated areas. After that, according
to him, the world will be faced with the fact, Karabakh residents’
life will become normal, and then a referendum can be held.

S. Babayan said that the motivation that the Armenian-Turkish border
will be opened if the lands are ceded is unacceptable for him. First,
as he predicted, even after ceding the lands the border will not be
opened, and then, even if it is opened, Armenia will gain nothing from
that. The Armenian authorities, according to S. Babayan, should not
think that by ceding the lands they will do good to the country. "If
it is so, let us cede both Karabakh and Yerevan and finish by that,"
he said.

S. Babayan said that even if its comes to returning the liberated
territories, only environmentalists and geologists can decide which
of them to cede and which not, as there are gold reserves and uranium
ores in these territories.

Touching upon the Moscow Declaration, S. Babayan said that it is only
a regular document, which he does not treat seriously. He affirmed
that the problem will not be solved by any declaration.