Regnum news agency, Russia
October 25 2008
The president of Nagornyy Karabakh: `In case of need, we are ready to
transfer hostilities into the heart of Azerbaijan’
"Over the recent years, we have said time and again that independence
and security of the NKR [the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic] are not a
subject to speculations and bargaining. We have always been for a
peaceful resolution to the Karabakh problem, but not at the expense of
our independence and freedom. We have paid the highest price for
independence and freedom and therefore, we have no right to jeopardize
it," Bako Saakyan, president of Nagornyy Karabakh, supreme commander
in chief, told journalists in Stepanakert [Xankandi] in a comment on
today’s tactical exercises of the NKR defence army, according to a
Regnum correspondent.
Having highly assessed the outcome of the exercises, the head of the
Karabakh state said: "Our armed forces have again displayed high
combat readiness and we again convinced ourselves that actions
demonstrated in the drills today can be applied in case if the
Azerbaijani army tries to settle a score with us by means of force. As
the NKR defence minister said today, in case of need our units are not
only ready to switch hostilities to the territory of the enemy but
also transfer them into the heart of Azerbaijan."
In reply to a question on the fate of the territories occupied in the
course of the hostilities, the NKR president said: "Those territories
were liberated in early 1990s and as of now, they are fixed in the
constitution of the NKR and are classified as a "security zone". Bako
Saakyan said that Stepanakert was ready to start negotiations with
Baku without any preconditions. "The current delay in the resolution
of the problem is conditioned upon the fact that we are not a
fully-fledged party in the negotiations," Bako Saakyan said, adding
that all the issues should be resolved with involvement of the people
of Nagornyy Karabakh.
We should say that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, on a two-day
visit to Nagornyy Karabakh, accompanied by Armenian Defence Minister
Seyran Ohanyan, observed the military exercises of the NKR defence
army.
[translated]