Armenian pressure group against compromises in Karabakh problem

Aravot, Armenia
Feb 17 2010

Armenian pressure group against compromises in Karabakh problem

A leader of an Armenian pressure group has urged President Serzh
Sargsyan to step up diplomatic efforts to retain control over
Azerbaijani breakaway Karabakh region.

Addressing the Armenian president, the re-elected head of the
Yerkrapah Union of Volunteers (YUV), Gen Manvel Grigoryan, said that
"we proved that both Karabakh and those territories [currently
Armenian-controlled territories around Nagornyy Karabakh] are ours",
pro-opposition Aravot daily reported on 17 February.

Speaking at the session of the union on 16 February, Grigoryan said
Armenian should neither make concessions nor cede territories in the
Karabakh issue, the paper added.

Against the backdrop of growing rift in the pressure group, Grigoryan
called for unity among members of the union to prevent further
aggravations in the country, added the same source.

Armenian Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan at the session also called on
members of the union to unite around Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan, Aravot reported.

Pro-opposition members of the YUV board, including former MP Myasnik
Malkhasyan, were not re-elected at the session, according to the
paper. YUV members, who support former Armenian President and
currently leader of the pro-opposition Armenian national Congress,
Levon Ter-Petrosyan, did not attend the session, Aravot reported.