AzerNews, Azerbaijan
March 27 2015

Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh not for Armenians, says MP

27 March 2015, 12:51 (GMT+04:00)
By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Armenians should either cross the border to Azerbaijan or leave the
Nagorno-Karabakh region, member of Azerbaijani parliament said.

Parliamentarian, Elman Mammadov believes that Armenians should defect
from Armenia and immediately withdraw from Azerbaijan’s occupied
lands, assuming they know right from wrong, especially in the light of
Armenia’s aggravated economic difficulties.

Mammadov claimed that Armenia’s economy is completely collapsing
because of the officials’ failure to address the spread of poverty and
depreciating quality of life.

“The same situation is observed also with the separatist regime in the
Nagorno Karabakh controlled by Yerevan,” he said, adding that even
Armenia’s own statistics expose the diminishing population there,
which now stands below 1,5 million people.

Mammadov believes that those who could’ve left Armenia, already seized
the opportunity to abandon the country.

Referring to the Armenian soldier, who surrendered to the Azerbaijani
troops, Mammadov said the conscript had made a sensible choice to save
his life, since the Armenian servicemen on the frontlines are
starving, and are serving alongside criminal commanders.

The serious enmity between the people in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia
also aggravates the situation in the Armenian army, the MP said.

“The capitulated Armenian soldier revealed the existing criminal
atmosphere in the army. This once again testifies to the fact that the
Azerbaijani army will soon liberate the occupied lands. The time has
come to do that,” he added.

Andranik Grigoryan, who raised a white flag to surrender to the
Azerbaijani army on March 22, said in an interrogation that the chaos
and intolerable conditions prevailing in the occupied Azerbaijani
lands, namely the absence of military discipline, shortages of
weapons, ammunition, food and medicines had ultimately led to his
defection.

He added that the conflicts between the local Karabakh population and
Armenians from Armenia, as well as the mutual hatred between officers
and soldiers exacerbated the situation deeply.

Even civilians are coercively entrenched as sentries because of the
lack of soldiers, Grigoryan confessed.

Mammadov believes that Armenia has now only two options: either build
relations with Azerbaijan to save its statehood or stand ready to be
destroyed.

In the other words, amid the ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan, the
occupant Armenia will make or break its future depending on its
relations with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh territory was
turned into a battlefield and zone of aggravated tensions after
Armenia sent its troops to occupy Azerbaijan’s lands. As a result, 20
percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory stands
under military occupation. For the past two decades, and despite calls
from the international community, Armenia has refused to withdraw its
troops and retreat within its national borders.