“If Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s concept worked, now we would have neither Armenia, nor Karabakh” (video)
If Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s conception on Nagorno Karabakh issue resolution worked, we would have neither Armenia nor Nagorno Karabakh. You won’t restrict the appetite of Azerbaijan with compromises, “Let’s give one part, he says, in order to keep the rest, but it wants all, how can you keep one part? It wants to reach Yerevan.” Armen Rustamyan has noticed that Levon Ter-Petrosyan speaks much of the compromises. He wants to understand what Azerbaijan surrenders; if it is interim recognition of Karabakh’s status, it doesn’t oblige Azerbaijan to recognize Karabakh’s independence, “The deployment of peacekeepers is natural, it doesn’t matter, were we struggling for deployment of peacekeepers?” Step-by-step resolution, according to Dashnaktsutyun, is buried, and Armen Rustamyan does not agree that step-by-step option of 1997 was discussed in Kazan. Dashnaktsutyun imagines the solution to Artsakh issue by one of the provisions of Karabakh Constitution; Azerbaijan must recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh, which includes also Shahumyan region, which is now in Azerbaijan’s territory, “I stand by the opinion of those people and I will give my life so that it comes true.” “Turk remains a Turk,” states Armen Rustamyan. Our neighbor, unlike Israel’s neighbors, carried out genocide and will again carry out, “Mr Levon Ter-Petrosyan doesn’t consider the issue of genocide to be a current issue, he considers that to be an issue of past, as we know his viewpoint, become reconciled.” But we know that in Karabakh Levon Ter-Petrosyan spoke about the threat of genocide coming from Azerbaijan. Armen Rustamyan agrees that such a thing was told, but that threat still exists, “Does this step-by-step plan eliminate the danger of genocide? On the contrary, our today’s guarantee; we have imposed peace by these territories.” Armen Rustamyan is also for negotiations, but the principle “territories for status” is distorted and is not acceptable. The issue of status must be clarified first and then the issue of territories must be discussed, “Which is their step-by-step option? First territories, then status? In the world it is perceived in completely different way- first status, then- territories.” According to Armen Rustamyan, Ter-Petrosyan thinks that we will weaken. In that case he must admit “nation-army” principle, yet he doesn’t accept, “Once he was against having army. He used to say that if we have army, it means we want to create problems with neighbors.” Armen Rustamyan agrees with Levon Ter-Petrosyan only over one thought that corruption ruins Armenia. Watch below the whole interview of Armen Rustamyan on Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s speech!
