Armenpress News Agency , Armenia
 Tuesday


"Impossible to pull trigger with one hand, negotiate with the other",
President Sargsyan on NK conflict



YEREVAN, OCTOBER 24, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is following the serious
military-political processes which are happening not far from its
borders, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in his speech at the
National Defense Research University’s session on October 24.

“I presented my principle approaches over the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict recently at the UN General Assembly. I don’t see the need to
repeat what I’ve said there. Nevertheless, I’d like to emphasize
several circumstances.

First, at this phase we do not have a goal to solve or put forward a
military task in Artsakh. We have solved the task of protecting the
civilian population of Artsakh from the adversary’s indiscriminate
gunfire, and we have solved it long ago. The peaceful settlement of
the conflict, among other conditions, must completely exclude any
military threat towards the peaceful population of Artsakh.

Second, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict indeed has no military solution.
Therefore it is impossible to pull the trigger with one hand, and to
negotiation with the other hand for finding this solution. We either
negotiation or we shoot. We are ready for both”, the President said.

The President emphasized that the negotiations should take place in
conditions of mutual trust via gun silence. Serzh Sargsyan mentioned
that by achieving short-term tactical or propaganda advantage, neither
of the sides solves any significant issue for itself. On the contrary,
the provocations make the serious negotiations simply impossible.

“Here I’d like to make a small deviation from the topic and say that
honestly a very strange situation has been created for me, when after
the Geneva talks the Azerbaijani side is attempting to emphasize with
a special cruelty that I have violated some kind of agreements. It is
honestly strange, and I am waiting for our next meeting very
impatiently in order to ask my colleague what had angered him.
Moreover, those who talk are people who shouldn’t have absolutely any
information about our conversation, because it was the two of us
talking, and If we had an agreement on non-disclosure, then how did
his assistants, or, I don’t know, deputies and others get acquainted
with the topic? I reassure you I haven’t said a single word from our
conversation anywhere. And what did I say at the meeting with the
Armenian community of Switzerland? I said that no Armenian leader can
sign a document which can put at risk the security of Nagorno
Karabakh. Secondly, I said that Karabakh must not be part of
Azerbaijan. And third, I said that the Azerbaijani President is also
concerned over the safety and fatalities of his soldiers. Is there
anything new here? I repeated what I’ve been saying for 20 years, what
we are talking about for 25 years. Meaning, if it seemed to anyone
that if we negotiate in Geneva, adopted a statement that the tension
must be reduced, it doesn’t mean that striving for Karabakh’s
independence should also reduce. Honestly, it is very strange for me”,
the President said.

The President said that Armenia does not carry out, and won’t carry
out revenge and collective punishment actions. Nevertheless, the
President warned that for every military loss, a compensation action
against the soldiers of the other side will take place.

“The third group of my points is about our ideology. The Nagorno
Karabakh conflict doesn’t have an ethnic or religious nature. We don’t
have any problems neither with the Azerbaijani people, nor moreover
with Islam. We are convinced that the Azerbaijani people want peace,
it is simply necessary to put this desire onto the right track”, the
President said.

He reminded that since the very first day of the Artsakh Liberation
Movements, the Armenian side did everything within the then-active
laws and international rights. “We really proceeded by carrying out
all actions in compliance with the then-active USSR law and
international rights. I don’t how to what extent we must be grateful
to our senior friends who were able to instill this right idea in us.
And it is because of this that we clearly say that the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict differs from all conflicts in the post-Soviet
territory, not only because the origins of the conflicts are
different, but first of all because everything was done within the
laws and rights”, he said.