HERITAGE YOUTH UNION CALLS FOR DEFENSE AND COUNTERATTACK
PanARMENIAN.Net
27.11.2009 16:48 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Hayk Youth and Student Union of Heritage Party
disseminated November 27 a statement entitled "Let’s wake up and
get ready for defense and retaliation" in connection with recent
bellicose statement of Azeri high-ranking officials. The statement
characterizes the recent bellicose statement of Azeri president as
a challenge to the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh.
"The Azerbaijani leadership’s belligerent rhetoric and threats to
resume the war have become more frequent recently. On the eve of
the November 22 Munich meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents, Ilham Aliyev stated that in case the meeting fails again
to produce progress in the Karabakh settlement this time, Azerbaijan
will resort to settling the conflict by military means. On November
25, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev said that Azerbaijan
sees no other way of settling the conflict than by military means.
Under these circumstances, we consider it very dangerous that the
serious challenges that the republics of Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia
are facing are ignored, and that those statements are deemed as
propaganda only.
We, the young members of the Heritage party, considering peace as
precious value, and realizing that a war would lead to significant
destruction and loss of lives to the both sides, reject any military
settlement of the conflict, and condemn the Azerbaijani leadership’s
attempts to provoke a war by engaging its own people in a war
hysteria. Nevertheless, we think that the best way to prevent a war
is to be prepared for one. To be ready for a possible resumption of
the war on the Artsakh front, the two Armenian states and societies
should initiate adequate extraordinary actions.
We call on: – The National Assembly to immediately recognize the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic, setting up conditions for recognizing the
NKR by the Armenian government at an appropriate time, as well as for
signing bilateral agreements between the Republic of Armenia and the
NKR in all fields, including the defense and security fields;
– The Armenian cabinet to review the 2010 state budget and, at least,
reinstate defense expenditure of the 2009 budget, as well as increase
significantly the overall size of loans to the NKR;
– The Republic of Armenia and NKR defense ministries: 1. Organize
trainings and exercises among the entire adult population for enhancing
civil defense combat skills; 2. Develop a functional plan for the
government-civil society cooperation in war time and present this
plan to the public;
– The Armenian Foreign Ministry to send an official note to the
Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation, that is considered to
be Armenia’s ally and strategic partner in the Collective Security
Treaty Organization, demanding that any military supplies and
cooperation under the 2006 and 2008 agreements between Moscow and
Baku be discontinued immediately;
– The youth of Armenia, Artsakh and Diaspora unite not allow any
unilateral concession in the Artsakh issue, and if needed, defend
our victories with arms;
– Youth organizations of the Armenian political parties to organize
meetings to discuss the situation on Artsakh.
All these actions will be helpful even if the Azerbaijani leadership’s
threats to resume the war are only propaganda. Otherwise, if Azerbaijan
unleashes a new war against the NKR and the Republic of Armenia, the
Armenian armed forces will reinstate the previous victories and would
not reserve to self-defense only but will turn to counterattacks and
liberate the Armenia Gardman, including Gandzak, as well as Nakhijevan,
securing new buffer zones for the security of Armenia and Artsakh.