Armenpress presents the interview:
Kathimerini: The dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh has turned from a frozen conflict into a war of attrition for the last six weeks. Could you describe the situation on the ground and give us an idea of the human toll for the Armenian people?
Sarkissian: I wouldn’t call the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict “frozen” because the Azeri side has always been trying to change and challenge the status quo by military means since a ceasefire was established between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan back in 1994 reached with the mediation of Russia. Instead of using the negotiation table to reach a final solution to the conflict during almost three decades, the Azeri side not only didn’t refrain from regularly and deliberately violating the ceasefire agreement and killing Armenian soldiers on the line of contact and civilians, both in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, but it was buying a large amount of modern weaponry worth billions of US dollars, including some prohibited ones, and turning the entire region into a powder keg. Moreover, Azerbaijan has been preparing its own population for a war, while the Armenian side then and now was a strong proponent of peaceful solution, and the Armenian elites were even sometimes criticized by some opposition representatives for being too peace-oriented instead of increasing military spending and harsh rhetoric.
Since the early 90s, Azerbaijan has increased its military budget by 10 times, and has never refrained from heavy xenophobic and militaristic rhetoric. Now we are witnessing its genocidal intentions in full action. Moreover, this inhuman aggression unleashed by the non-democratic Azerbaijani regime on September 27 is militarily and politically supported by another non-democratic regime in Turkey. Dictatorships don’t care about the destiny and prosperity of their own people, let alone respect simple human lives, values and dignity. A non-democratic regime, be it in Baku, Ankara or elsewhere, builds its “strength” and “pride” on the suffering of its own people, and hence, is of course more than inhuman toward other nations. Nagorno-Karabakh is not a conflict but a struggle of the pride of the Armenian nation for its security, proud life and dignity vs killings, humiliations and suffering.
As for the human toll of the Armenian people, there is always official daily information provided by the Armenian government which doesn’t hide those figures, unlike the Azeri side, which doesn’t deliver any information about its human or other losses. Every life of the Armenian side matters for us, and it’s not about numbers or mathematics. The beating of every single heart of the Armenian side is priceless to us, and we need to stop the bloodshed.
Kathimerini: Who is to blame for the violations of three consecutive, temporary ceasefire agreements?
Sarkissian: All three ceasefires or humanitarian truce agreements have been almost immediately violated by the Azerbaijani side, which not only didn’t stop its bombardments, but shelled the territory of Armenia as well. This may sound illogical to you if you want to understand why an agreement is reached if the Azeri side is not going to respect but just to breach it immediately. Well, the logic is that the Azeri, not the Armenian side unleashed this well-planned and designed military aggression and war with a direct participation of Turkish generals, officers, special military units, Bayraktar death machines, as well as jihadists and Syrian mercenaries like those who are now in Paris and Vienna or elsewhere killing innocent citizens. The same is here in Nagorno-Karabakh: professional killers of Azerbaijan and Turkey against innocent people. Why does the Azeri side sign but is then motivated to violate ceasefires? It’s simple: Those dictators both in Baku and Ankara didn’t finish with their “mission,” which lies in “freeing” Nagorno-Karabakh from the Armenians living there for thousands of years.
This operation or policy is called ethnic cleansing, which is the ultimate goal of this inhuman aggression by Azerbaijan and Turkey against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh. That’s why the Azeri side is not interested in stopping its genocidal policy against the innocent people, but to finalize it. Under the name of establishing their control over Nagorno-Karabakh, they don’t want peace but tragedies, killing of civilians, destroying churches, hospitals and kindergartens, and spreading terror. Who on earth will agree to live with those barbarian terrorists? During about 25 years of negotiations Azerbaijan didn’t agree to any scenarios discussed under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, be it mediated by Russia, the US or France, or by all three co-chairs altogether. Because the only option Azerbaijan was in favor of, is to have Nagorno-Karabakh without Armenians. This is what happened 105 years ago with my nation in the Ottoman Empire, known as the Armenian Genocide. We will never allow another genocide to happen. Never! And this is what the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is about.
Kathimerini: Your Azeri counterpart, President Ilham Aliyev, insists that a military solution to the conflict is feasible. Given the fact that Azerbaijan outnumbers Armenia in terms of military equipment and manpower, how could you possibly prove him wrong?
Sarkissian: My nation doesn’t need to prove anything to anybody. The strength of the Armenian Armed Forces and the spirit of the Armenian nation were showcased during the first war in Nagorno-Karabakh in the late 80s. So, it’s not about a simple calculation of numbers and quantity. We fight for our homes, our homeland, children, and the preservation of the Armenian cultural heritage of thousands of years. This is what some fail to understand.
This conflict was imposed on us because Nagorno-Karabakh, overwhelmingly populated by Armenians, didn’t want to continue its forced existence with Soviet Azerbaijan and declared independence from Azerbaijan according to all existing rules and laws – by the way, applying the same procedures that Azerbaijan used to get its independence from the Soviet Union. The Azeri side, as a true dictatorship, doesn’t like freedoms and rights of its own and other peoples, and they tried to solve the problem with the Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh by using military equipment and manpower, outnumbering Armenians, as you put it. So, they imposed war on us, and got retaliated against and defeated. Nothing and nobody can stop a nation from exerting its right to live freely and in security.
Kathimerini: Would it be fair to say that the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, encourages Baku to adopt a most intransigent behavior? If so, to what end?
Sarkissian: The role of Turkey in this conflict deserves special attention and understanding. This direct participation increases the number of conflicting sides, and internationalizes the conflict. Turkey’s proven involvement on the ground, although denied by the Turkish side, levels up the conflict and dramatically increases the scope, the magnitude and hence the consequences of the military aggression by Azerbaijan. The presence of fanatic jihadists and Syrian and other mercenaries renders the whole picture even more complex and complicated and endangers the security of the entire region which can turn the Caucasus into a new Syria.
Not only does Turkey encourage Baku to become a blind killer of peaceful people and to violate ceasefire agreements, but it keeps Azerbaijan as its hostage, transforming it into its new tool of political manipulation against Russia, the EU, the US and Iran. In the short term, Azerbaijan can be happy to have Turkey by its side and have its full support in the war against peaceful Nagorno-Karabakh, but in the mid- and long terms, it will be a failure, and only then will Azerbaijan realize to what extent it has become Turkey’s Caucasian puppet at the expense of its own politico-economic independence, maneuverability, stability and predictability. Turkey is a regional player with imperialistic ambitions and appetite, but with limited resources and a fading international reputation. It is messing up in Syria, Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean etc. So, using Azerbaijan to achieve its goals by also encouraging and pushing it to unleash a war is the least it can do in the region and beyond.
Kathimerini: Ankara and Baku portray themselves as guarantors of Europe’s energy security, claiming that Armenian forces could shell the oil and gas pipelines crossing the region. Is it a real threat or just scaremongering?
Sarkissian: This is a matter of unsubstantiated allegations and respective propaganda the government of Azerbaijan and the paid propagandists of its national interests in the West and elsewhere have tended to spread for decades. The consistent attempts to portray Armenia as a destructive force of the region that allegedly “poses a threat” to the energy infrastructure was and still remains a backbone of anti-Armenian fictional narratives the Azerbaijani side has fostered for foreign audiences. This aims to serve as moral justification for the ongoing aggression and war it wages against the Armenians. Despite numerous fabrications and intentional false interpretations diligently pushed by the Azerbaijani side on this matter, I can find no statement or sign of hidden intention by any acting Armenian top official ever which might contribute to such allegations. To the contrary, as recently as in July, when the fighting in the Tavush/Tovuz sector of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border reached its apogee...
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