NATIONALISTS WANT ARMENIA TO TAKE HARDER LINE ON N.-KARABAKH
Interfax
July 16 2009
Russia
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, an old socialist and nationalist
political party also known as Dashnaktsutiun, said on Thursday said
it expected that, at a planned meeting with his Azeri counterpart,
the Armenian president "will sign no documents ignoring the will"
of Nagorno-Karabakh to secede from Azerbaijan.
"We expect that the Armenian president [Serzh Sargsyan] will not
sign any documents that ignores the will that the people of Nagorno-
Karabakh have expressed through two referendums, and that he will take
measures to bring back Nagorno-Karabakh to the negotiating table,"
Dashnaktsutiun said in a statement.
The statement also demanded the dismissal of Armenian Foreign Minister
Edward Nalbandian and protested at the line taken by the Minsk Group,
an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe body mediating
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"We record that Armenia’s foreign policy has diverted from the
principles of the National Security Strategy and the Military Doctrine.
The attempt of the co-chairing countries [Russia, France and the United
States] to push through a fast-track solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict endangers our national and state interests. Azerbaijan
is speaking from a position of force, trampling upon the right of
Nagorno- Karabakh to self-determination and ignoring the existence
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic," the statement said.
Dashnaktsutiun sent delegations to the Russian, French and U.S.
Embassies. The chairman of the party’s Supreme Council, Armen
Rustamian, said the delegates had the mission of protesting at the
internationally agreed "Madrid principles" for the settlement of
the conflict.