Armenian ex-minister says Karabakh settlement part of USA’s Iran plan
Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
25 Mar 06
Excerpt from Nikol Pashinyan’s report in Armenian newspaper Aykakan
Zhamanak on 25 March headlined “Unfortunately, there is no alternative
to Ter-Petrosyan”
An interview with former Interior Minister Vano Siradegyan.
[Passage omitted: Siradegyan on what he has been doing since leaving
the post]
[Correspondent] How do you assess today’s domestic political situation
in Armenia?
[Siradegyan] There has been no sign of a political life over the past
18 months. The political elite is evidently confused and is gradually
slipping into a state of panic. Incidentally, the opposition is in
more panic.
[Passage omitted: minor details]
[Correspondent] How do you assess the international position of Armenia
and, in particular, today’s situation around the Karabakh issue? Can
hostilities resume?
[Siradegyan] Those who support preserving the status quo in the matter
of Karabakh, i.e. political idlers, and those who have cashed in on
the blockade believe that the situation created around Iran will delay
the Karabakh issue even more. They think we shall be forgotten. But
quite the contrary is more likely. I am afraid that Iran’s problem
may be settled “stage by stage” and that Karabakh will be its first
stage. That is to say, Armenian troops will be removed from the left
bank of the River Araz.
One should not think that Washington is exhausted because of the
situation in Iraq. Nobody knows whether or not the occupation of
Iraq was the next stage after Afghanistan in the programme of Iranian
“problem settlement”. Anyway, the problem of the left bank is always
on the agenda. It becomes the third and even the fourth stage if we
take into account the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
The threat of war is serious because both political and diplomatic
resources of the authorities have been exhausted. One or two more
meetings will mean nothing. There are two ways out: either resignation
or war. I think that resignation is more possible.
[Passage omitted: Siradegyan speculates on domestic political
relations, possible development of events]