"I AM READY TO FULFILL MY DUTY AS A SOLDIER"

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[08:07 pm] 05 March, 2009

"No nation likes war, but no nation hates a war that results in its
victory. The total, pan-national hatred toward war is fraught with new
wars and downfall. We did not even give our people the chance to value
the war that they won. In the result, we have come to the point where
symbols are being destroyed. The Dashnaks celebrate May 28-not us,
September 21 is the celebration of the Armenian National Movement-we
don’t celebrate that, the Constitution belongs to Levon and not us,"
these were the words of Sparapet Vazgen Sargsyan in his speech made
during the 5th special congress of the Republican Party of Armenia
on January 30, 1999.

At the time Vazgen Sargsyan was still the Minister of Defense and
still hadn’t formed the "Miasnutyun" alliance, which Vazgen Sargsyan
headed along with Karen Demirchyan, participated in the National
Assembly elections in May 1999 and turned Armenian Prime Minister.

Vazgen Sargsyan made some clarifications during his speech at the
Republican Party’s special congress and we present them briefly ten
years after that speech.

"Tied to fate"

My relationship with Robert Kocharyan: everybody has been talking
about my relationship with Robert Kocharyan for the past year. I am
telling you once and for all that we are close friends, have fought
together and are also tied by fate. I will never go against Robert
Kocharyan. We have something to prove. Levon Ter-Petrosyan left a
great burden on our shoulders with his resignation. We are certain
that we were right, but we still have to prove to ourselves and the
people that we are right. We are tied by fate.

If Ter-Petrosyan didn’t leave…

As for my relationship with Levon Ter-Petrosyan, I have respected,
respect and always will respect Levon Ter-Petrosyan. He is a wise
and moral person and state figure. Levon Ter-Petrosyan resigned and
took with him his beliefs and left everything up to us. If Levon
Ter-Petrosyan were to decide not to resign, nobody could remove
him. The rumors that others made Levon Ter-Petrosyan leave, that it was
on time and it was the people starting from Vazgen Sargsyan and ending
with Muradik of Karabakh who did it are senseless and ridiculous. If
Levon Ter-Petrosyan didn’t resign, nobody would make him do so. If he
were to remove me from the office of Minister of Defense, I would. But
in that case he would take on the responsibility. He resigned and put
the weight on our shoulders. This is an issue of responsibility and not
who removed whom. I have not gone against Levon Ter-Petrosyan; rather,
I have defended his ideas. Our views differed on the Artsakh issue
and had my differences with Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s group of people.

Today the prominent state figure Vazgen Sargsyan would have turned 50
years old. But he was assassinated 10 years ago on October 27, 1999 in
the National Assembly. He was the Prime Minister of Armenia and on the
day of the tragedy he was answering deputies’ questions in parliament.