Armenpress presents the President’s full interview:
Becky Anderson: So, to know about the conflict we now joined the Armenian president Armen Sarkissian, he is speaking from Armenia's capital Yerevan. He is talking about the attacks against its cities regionating from Armenia itself to Nagorno-Karabakh.
President Sarkissian: Well, unfortunately, this is a war started by Azerbaijan against the people of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh [Artsakh] and this is not a usual war we are seeing. I mean, these are not short conflicts for a day or two or three or four that have been happening during 26 years after the first war on Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a ceasefire in 1994. What is different here is the scale and it is already on the seventh day (it is coming the eight day) of the conflict because a week ago Azerbaijan started a war on Sunday, and there are already some clear results of that. First of all, this conflict of seventh days has shown that Azerbaijan is not gaining anything strategically, except creating a big mess and thousands of people that are killed on both sides. Secondly, this conflict is dramatically different from the previous clashes, which were happening between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, supported by Armenia. It is now happening with the open support by Turkey with its military officers, generals, mercenaries, and terroristic Jihadists who are brought in thousands to Azerbaijan to fight against Nagorno-Karabakh, and Turkey with its military might is pretending that they are there just to protect some international, logistic structures.
Becky Anderson: We will get to Turkey and I just wanted to establish what is going on, even if the entire responsibilities falls on Azerbaijan, many people disagree and say that Armenia provoked them.
President Sarkissian: I think there is no logic in saying that Armenia has provoked it because in 1994 the people of Nagorno-Karabakh basically won the war and claimed again for our independence that was taken from us for 70 years of the Soviet rule by forcefully connecting us to Azerbaijan by Josef Stalin. And then, with the breakdown of the Soviet Union we started to claim, similar to many other nations, our self-determination to rule our own life. Since then, there were negotiations for 26 years after the ceasefire and the platform of that negotiations was one of the best or the highest in the world; this is the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France. These peaceful negotiations were basically creating some trust between the sides and eventually talking about the future status of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, a week ago for this or that reason, the Azerbaijani side is claiming that they see no progress in negotiations and claim that this is about the territorial integrity. What is a territorial integrity for a piece of land that was given to them by the Soviet Union to keep it for 70 years, while Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh lived there for thousands of years? For people of Nagorno-Karabakh this is a fight for life because they have been fighting against Genghis Khan, Lenk Timur and the others for thousands of years, now it is about having a peaceful life on their own land.
Becky Anderson: How about that the Azerbaijani president said just yesterday "Azerbaijan will not let anyone to conquer Nagorno Karabakh, which is an Azeri territory, we must return, we will return it from Armenian occupation. He says "Azerbaijan will not cease military actions until you don't set a timetable for withdrawing frits". Are you willing to do that?
President Sarkissian: Well, I think, first of all, addressing it to the Republic of Armenia is a wrong appeal as they have to appeal to Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh as we call it, because their dispute is with this people. Now, this is not about Armenia occupying a territory. This is a territory that even under the Soviet rule, when it was part of Soviet Azerbaijan for 70 years, the absolute majority, I mean 95% of the population, were Armenians because they have been living there for thousands of years. How can anybody occupy a territory that you are living for thousands of years? So, this is not the right appeal...
Becky Anderson: Azerbaijan's Military Defense said today that they have recorded rockets at Azerbaijan from starting positions of Armenia. How would you explain this, sir?
President Sarkissian: I don't have to explain because that is not true, and in reality, the radar systems, computers and everything have been recording all the time how they were shelling the civilian population and the city of Stepanakert, villages and so on, from the Azerbaijani territory, and, in fact, what we have also recorded it is the activity of thousands of mujahideen terrorists, and we have also recorded basically Turkish F-16 being involved and their drones being massively involved. So, the short answer is that this is fake news.
Becky Anderson: Your Prime Minister spoke with the US national security advisor Robert O'Brien on Thursday about Turkey's role in the intensifying conflict. What was the outcome of that talk and is the US offering any support?
President Sarkissian: Well, there was a call, as you know, by the three Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group on the presidential level of relevant countries: the President of the United States, the President of France and the President of the Russian Federation who called upon the sides for a ceasefire. I fully support this call of the three Presidents but the key issue here is that if there were only these two sides-the Azeri side and the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh with its population plus Armenia that is supporting Nagorno-Karabakh-then there would be a chance for future ceasefire and coming to the negotiating table. But as we have the Turkish component, it destroys everything.
Becky Anderson: The New York Times is reporting that the Prime Minister of the US says that nothing is being done to stop Turkey from American-made F-16 against ethnic Armenians. So, what is the response from Washington?
President Sarkissian: You are asking me something that is probably up to the US President’s National Security Advisor to answer this question. I openly spoke about this to the big multinational community, to many Presidents, Prime Ministers of different countries, asking them to interfere and put pressure on Turkey to stop it to interfere in the region because their interference is leveling the conflict up in magnitude, in complexity, and also creating something that eventually will become another Syria of Caucasus. If it becomes a place like Syria, then God help everybody. God help Europe, God help Central Asia. It will affect everybody including Turkey, Iran and Russia. So, my plea is if Turkey is restrained with the help of Russia, US and France, then we have a chance of a ceasefire and further negotiations, maybe peacekeepers, and...
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