POSSIBILITY OF RESUMPTION OF HOSTILITIES NO HIGHER THAN 5 YEARS AGO

PanARMENIAN.Net
09.02.2010 14:11 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenia has to be ready for regional hostilities,
the possibility of which can never be ruled out, former NKR Foreign
Minister Arman Melikyan said.

"The possibility of resumption of hostilities in the region is no
higher than 5 years ago," he told a news conference in Yerevan, also
adding that Azerbaijan won’t launch a war, unless offered guarantees
by one of superpowers.

"To strengthen its positions in Azerbaijan, Moscow could benefit from
the situation by agreeing a compromise with Baku," Melikyan noted,
commenting on Russia’s stance in Karabakh conflict settlement.

"Armenians’ leaving Karabakh would be the worst scenario in final
solution to the conflict," Melikyan believes.

The conflict between Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan broke out in
1988 as result of the ethnic cleansing the latter launched in the
final years of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh War was fought from
1991 to 1994. Since the ceasefire in 1994, sealed by Armenia, NKR and
Azerbaijan, most of Nagorno Karabakh and several regions of Azerbaijan
around it (the security zone) remain under the control of NKR defense
army. Armenia and Azerbaijan are holding peace talks mediated by the
OSCE Minsk Group up till now.