ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SEES NO THREAT OF A RENEWED WAR IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT ZONE

ARKA
April 26, 2010
YEREVAN

In an interview with Russian news agency RIA Novosti last week
Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan downplayed speculations about the
growing threat of a renewed war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone
in the near future. Nevertheless she said the threat of resumption
of hostilities will be there as long as peace and stability are not
established. He said that would come with signing of an effective
peace agreement by the sides to the conflict.

"Some people in Azerbaijan go over the limits, reflected in their
militaristic demagogy and Armenia-phobia,’ the president said. He
said an attempt to solve the conflict by force is an adventure,
fraught with a catastrophe for Azerbaijan.

He said a renewed war in the region would destabilize it for a long
time and create a new hotbed of tension, but would fail to solve
the conflict.

"In short, I do not see a threat of a new war in the region in near
future, but I have repeatedly said that our armed forces must be
ready for a war that may start tomorrow,’ Serzh Sargsyan said.

The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh broke out in 1988 after the
predominantly Armenian-populated enclave declared about secession
from Azerbaijan As Azerbaijan declared its independence from the
Soviet Union and removed the powers held by the enclave’s government,
the Armenian majority voted in 1991, December 10, to secede from
Azerbaijan and in the process proclaimed the enclave the Republic
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Full-scale fighting, initiated by Azerbaijan, erupted in the late
winter of 1992. International mediation by several groups including
Europe’s OSCE’s failed to bring an end resolution that both sides
could work with. In the spring of 1993, Armenian forces captured
regions outside the enclave itself. By the end of the war in 1994,
the Armenians were in full control of most of the enclave and also
held and currently control seven regions beyond the administrative
borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Almost 1 million people on both sides have been displaced as a result
of the conflict. A Russian- -brokered ceasefire was signed in May
1994 and peace talks, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group, have been
held ever since by Armenia and Azerbaijan.