Today, Azerbaijan
March 13 2010

Azerbaijani MP: Azerbaijan’s increasing military capabilities is
matter of serious concern for Armenia

13 March 2010 [14:00] – Today.Az

Day.Az interview with member of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis
(Parliament) Aydin Mirzazade.

In his interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan said that ostensibly Armenian side does not fear
resumption of war with Azerbaijan. In your opinion, why did the
Armenian President raise this question again?

The Armenian officials have often touched upon the issue of renewed
hostilities lately. They call Azerbaijan not to build up its military
power, give advice on use of the military budget or say that not
quantitative but qualitative indicator of the combat capability of the
Armenian army is important.

All this shows that increase in Azerbaijan’s military capabilities is
indeed a matter of serious concern for Armenia. It is concerned with
Azerbaijan’s determination to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by
any means, including military. It is also concerned with the combat
readiness of the Azerbaijani army. Sargsyan’s statements testify to
this.

Sargsyan’s statement indicates that the Armenian side has nothing to
lose. In extreme case, it will lose the Azerbaijani territory it has
seized. The fact that lately the Armenian authorities have often
touched upon this issue shows they realize that it is time to return
occupied lands. But nanationalist sentiments and claims to neighboring
states prevent them to do this.

In his interview Sargsyan reiterated that Armenia may withdraw its
signature from the Ankara-Yerevan accords. May Armenia really take
such a step? Can we say that the process of Armenia-Turkey
normalization has reached a complete impasse?

Possible, Sargsyan thinks that such statements will scare Turkey and
the world. Who will lose in case these protocols will no longer exist
and the issue of opening the borders will be closed for a long time?

Today, Turkey does not need to open borders with unpromising and poor
country like Armenia. Armenia does need opening of the borders. It
needs to use Turkey’s economic opportunities. It needs Turkish
investment, communication and involvement of the Turkish capital. But
Turkey is not in a hurry to do that (open borders) until Armenia
withdraws from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.

I think the point is that the Armenian leadership does not really care
about opening of the borders. Only simple population of Armenia, who
is unable to find work and a piece of bread at leaving the country in
search of income, suffers from this. But former field commanders in
Karabakh dressed in ties and epaulettes are political figures today.

Recently, the Committee on Foreign Relations of the U.S. House of
Representatives voted for the resolution on "Armenian Genocide". This
week the Swedish Parliament also approved a similar bill. In your
opinion, what is the reason for increased efforts to recognize the
"Armenian genocide" in the world?

During both votes, the bills were approved by majority of only one
vote. I think that both decisions were politically motivated.
Unfortunately, there are people both in the U.S. Congress and in the
Swedish Parliament who do not respect interests of their state. They
have become captives of the Armenian diaspora and Armenian
organizations. There is only one goal – to put pressure on Turkey to
deprive it of freedom of action to impose an option unacceptable for
the country. But, as it is evident from Turkey’s reaction, these
people will unlikely will be able to achieve their goal. Turkey will
continue to pursue its independent policy and defend its national
interests.

Forces who started by this dirty game will be losers in this game. The
Armenian diaspora in this matter has nothing to lose, but Sweden, as a
nation, will lose much in the political, economic, military and
cultural cooperation with Turkey after this ecision.

N. Abdullayeva

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