Incredible pain, we are losing young, bright, patriotic young men who are fighting for the Fatherland: President Armen Sarkissian met with European journalists

President Armen Sarkissian met today with a group of European journalists who recently visited Artsakh. The President responded to their question related to Azerbaijan’s aggression against Artsakh and ensuing situation.

Responding to the question what he, as the president of the country, feels seeing all this, President Armen Sarkissian responded that he feels incredible pain. “For us, it is two, three times more painful because we are losing young, bright, patriotic young men who are fighting for the Fatherland and who are ready to sacrifice their lives for the Fatherland. No words to express the pain I feel,” he said. “This war is inhumane also because from day one Azerbaijan has been bombing and shelling civilian population, settlements.” President Sarkissian told the journalists in detail what the war means for each of its parties. If Azerbaijan declares the objective of the war to liberate territories which have been populated by Armenians for millennia and which are their historical lands, then, according to the President, there is another word for it – ethnic cleansing.

According to the President, Turkey’s objective is to show Azerbaijan that they are ethnic brothers, but they have brothers in many countries, while their main objective is to occupy a predominant position in the Caucasus. In his words, Turkey demonstrates Azerbaijan that they need Turkey and it is ready to help. But they will not only help but most probably stay here, to establish control over international pipelines.

“What the people of Artsakh are fighting for? They are fighting for their live, honor, heritage, their faith, their families, history, their homes,” the President underscored. “At the same time, small in number, the people in Nagorno Karabakh are also fighting for the regional security, also for Europe’s security, I mean, for instance, energy security. They are fighting for the security in the Middle East. Remember that Turkey is engaged in the conflicts in Syria, Libya, Iraq without even thinking of the territorial integrity of that countries.”

President Sarkissian underscored that Turkey’s presence only further complicates things. “When we speak of the avenues to achieve peace, it is undoubtedly, ceasefire, established regime of a ceasefire, work toward confidence building and resumption of negotiations, however between the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides, and not Turkey because Turkey cannot be a party or a mediator,” the President of Armenia said. “A NATO member cannot be involved in a conflict which has nothing to do with NATO, using NATO trained personnel, modern weaponry, and technologies. This is a huge problem for the European Union and NATO. Has NATO authorized its member to do what’s it is doing now? If yes, let us know, if no, why do you allow it to happen?”

The President of Armenia underscored once again that the only way to resume the process of negotiations and move toward peace is Turkey’s retreat from the conflict, otherwise the situation will become a threat for the entire region.

Responding to the question on a possible recognition of Artsakh, the President spoke of the differences in the approaches of the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides. “Through the years, Armenia didn’t not recognize independence of Artsakh for one, simple reason: to allow for the status of Nagorno Karabakh to be decided through negotiations. We wanted for Artsakh’s independence to be recognized as a result of the negotiations, and only after that Armenia would recognize it. At the same time, if the war goes on and there is no chance for the negotiations to resume, Armenia will most probably will have no choice but to recognize. However, at this moment there is hope that there can be a ceasefire and return to negotiating table. For that very reason, Armenia is not doing it even today. We believe that there is no military solution to this problem,” the President noted referring to another difference. “Have you been to Shushi? Have you seen the church, have you seen the mosque? The mosque was reconstructed through the means and efforts of the Armenian side. The church was renovated too. What happened these days? Azerbaijan bombed the church. This is a telling difference between our approaches.

Another difference is about positioning of military units. In Artsakh, they are not in settlements. Here, they try to keep military presence and activities as far from civilian population as possible. Azerbaijan does the opposite: their military objects are located right in the middle of human settlements which makes population a target.”

Responding to the question of the journalist on the efforts undertaken by France, President Sarkissian hailed vigorous efforts of President Emmanuel Macron and French government. “France represents Europe in the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship but we hear the voice of France much louder than the voice of Europe. We don’t hear NATO’s voice, EU’s voice is not audible enough. We also highly value efforts by Russia and its mediation activities.”

The President thanked the President of the RF Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov and expressed hope that greater efforts would be exercised to achieve ceasefire and maintain it.

President Sarkissian thanked also the journalists for their courage and professional work and from the viewpoint of telling the public the truth, he stressed the importance of the visits of the representatives of the mass media to the region, to Artsakh and unbiased information provided by them.