RA LEADER: KARABAKH PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS BE READY TO DEFEND THEIR RIGHT TO SURVIVE
PanARMENIAN.Net
10.02.2010 18:57 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azerbaijan has exhausted the resources of trust
in terms of autonomous status for minorities within its boundaries,
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated in his speech at Chatham
House, Royal Institute of International Affairs.
"Azerbaijan was not and is not capable of providing guarantees of
even internal security to such autonomies. There was once another
Armenian autonomy in Azerbaijan: Nakhijevan. What happened to it? Not
a single Armenian is left in Nakhijevan. Can such guarantees be
taken for granted? You might say Azerbaijan was different then, and
is different now. During the last 18 years of that "difference" more
Armenian and Christian monuments were destroyed than in the preceding
70 years. The international organizations tasked with protection of
the cultural heritage were unable to do anything: Azerbaijan did not
even permit them to visit and see the obliterated Armenian monuments,"
Serzh Sargsyan emphasized.
"In the meantime, a full-blown race of arms continues in the South
Caucasus. It is extremely dangerous. It is dangerous not only for
the South Caucasus peoples, but also for Europe and the powers that
have a stake in the region, the corporations that have invested
in the Caucasus, and everyone else. Azerbaijan has not faced any
substantial confrontation for having exceeded all the possible caps
on conventional arms. Even if not used in a war against Karabakh, the
weapons Azerbaijan is stockpiling today will shoot somewhere. The only
question is where and when. While spending large sums on purchases of
oil, the advanced states, in my opinion, cannot remain indifferent to
how their moneys are being spent. The fact is that these very proceeds
can become a source of threats, something that has happened elsewhere
in the past.
Armenia and Karabakh have never unleashed and never will unleash
a war. We despise war, as our generation was forced to look death
straight in the eyes, and has seen and lost more than can be imagined.
However, we realize that we must be ready for war in case others
wish to fight. We cannot turn a blind eye to recurrent belligerent
threats coming from a neighbouring state, whose President’s New Year
address to his people sounded no different from the speech of an army
commander motivating his units for a battle.
The irony is that Azeri propaganda, spending hundreds of millions
of dollars, does not miss any opportunity to label Karabakh as an
aggressor, despite the fact that the people of Karabakh had to take
on arms literally to avoid extermination.
The reality is that the people that live in Karabakh are and will
always be ready to defend their right to survive, their values,
churches, and cross-stones," Armenian leader concluded.