Armenian pressure group urges MPs not to endorse sending troops to Iraq
A1+ web site
24 Dec 04
23 December: The Defence of the Liberated Territories public initiative
sent an open letter to the members of the [Armenian] National Assembly
today. The National Assembly is to adopt a decision tomorrow on
sending to Iraq a 50-strong group of Armenian military doctors,
sappers and drivers.
“At this decisive moment I am calling on everybody to be vigilant.
Responsibility for sending mercenaries to Iraq is put on the
shoulders of the deputies today. Nobody can cite a single logical
reason justifying Armenia’s participation in the US-British escapade
in Iraq. You know that there is no reason of this kind,” the letter
says. The authors of the open letter are sure that one or two persons
are responsible for everything, and this is being done “in order to
mitigate the outside danger directed against their personal power
and its successful handover”.
“One does not have to pretend to be a diplomat: cunning and
cowardliness alone are too little for that. Dare not defame the
honour of our arms. Each deputy, moreover, each faction are obliged
to do the impossible to not allow this agreement to be ratified. The
Armenian people demand this today,” says the letter signed by the
commander of the special battalion of the Artsakh [Nagornyy Karabakh]
war and coordinator of the Defence of the Liberated Territories public
initiative, Zhirayr Sefilyan.