Azerbaijan Admits It Causes Escalation – Serzh Sargsyan

AZERBAIJAN ADMITS IT CAUSES ESCALATION – SERZH SARGSYAN

15:22 * 07.04.15

In an interview with the broadcast “Opinion” (Rossiya 24 channel),
Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan spoke of the Nagorno-Karabakh
peace process.

“We are sure that the principles contained in the statements by
the leaders of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair states – the United
States, France and Russia – in the document that is the basis for
our negotiations with Azerbaijan for more than seven years are an
acceptable basis for a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The unanimous opinion of the co-chair states is that the principles
are a single whole and none of them must be preferred to the others.

Of course, we share the co-chairs’ opinion that the two nations must
be prepared for peace rather than for war. Regrettably, Azerbaijan’s
leadership is doing quite the opposite. We have all been witnesses
to rising tensions since last summer, and the states and officials
dealing with the problem have no doubts Azerbaijan is responsible
for escalation,” Mr Sargsyan said.

Azerbaijan’s leaders do not even conceal the fact. At the conference on
security in Munich they stated that the tension would continue until
Armenia ceded the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. But the
Nagorno-Karabakh army had to create a security zone to protect the
Armenian population from daily fire.

“That is, Azerbaijan’s leaders are ignoring the principles proposed
by the OSCE Minsk Group to resolve the problem. Of course, we have to
defend ourselves, and if Azerbaijan embarks on a military adventure,
we are not afraid of warring.

“As the oriental saying is ‘Pilau is not served round in the war’. War
means losses, and we will suffer great losses regardless of the
outcome. We suffered great losses during the Great Patriotic War.

Armenia’s population was 1.9 million when the Great Patriotic War
broke out, and 2.8 million Armenians lived in the entire Soviet Union
then. A total of 600,000 Armenians went to the front, and 314,000
of them never returned. Every ninth Armenian and almost 12% of our
population,” President Serzh Sargsyan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress