Tweet
SERZH SARGSYAN: AZERBAIJAN WAITING FOR AN OCCASION TO START A CONFLICT
http://www.armradio.am/en/2012/11/09/wsj-armenia-accuses-azerbaijan-of-stoking-conflict/
10:15 09.11.20121
Armenia's president is increasingly concerned about what he sees
as neighboring Azerbaijan's willingness to engage in armed conflict
over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, he said in an interview,
warning that Armenian forces would deliver a disproportionate blow
should conflict erupt between the neighbors.
In comments to The Wall Street Journal, President Serzh Sargsyan said
Armenia's government would continue to push for a negotiated settlement
to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has simmered for nearly
two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But he also tapped
the rising tensions in one of the world's key energy corridors.
"Unfortunately, I believe Azerbaijan is waiting for an occasion to
start a conflict," President Sargsyan said Thursday. "I am confident
such a mistake would harm the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia
but that most harm would come to the people of Azerbaijan....We
won't stand aside when the population of Nagorno-Karabakh is going
to be destroyed."
The Armenian president also said that his government was pushing
forward to tackle rampant corruption and that Armenia's economy had
posted a 7% expansion in the year through September. That signals
Armenia's emergence from an economic crisis.
The Wall Street Journal reminds that "the war of words intensified in
August, when Azeri President Ilham Aliyev offered a hero's welcome
to Ramil Safarov, an Azeri officer convicted of hacking an Armenian
to death with an ax on a NATO course in Hungary in 2004. The affair
prompted a diplomatic storm, and Armenia withdrew its ambassador
to Hungary."
"What is the reason for establishing such a xenophobic atmosphere and
hatred against Armenians in Azerbaijan?" President Sargsyan said. "It
is easier to create such an atmosphere, to encourage hate speech,
rather than deal with the consequences of that atmosphere and turn
the tide back."
"Washington and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have watched
developments with mounting alarm. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton warned of the threat of a "much broader conflict" when she
visited Armenia in June. NATO Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen
has expressed his "deep concern" in September over the dramatic
escalation in rhetoric between the capitals," the papaer writes.
President Sargsyan's statements underscored the need for the
international community to engage more actively, analysts said.
President Sargsyan also warned that the prospect of a military strike
against Iran, with which Armenia shares a border, was an issue of
"extreme concern" which could set off a sequence of events that could
also trigger a conflict between Yerevan and Baku.
He said deeper international engagement in the region was vital to
help reduce tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia. "If we had been
living in an isolated region where there was no international impact,
war would have already begun," he said.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2012/11/09/wsj-armenia-accuses-azerbaijan-of-stoking-conflict/
10:15 09.11.20121
Armenia's president is increasingly concerned about what he sees
as neighboring Azerbaijan's willingness to engage in armed conflict
over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, he said in an interview,
warning that Armenian forces would deliver a disproportionate blow
should conflict erupt between the neighbors.
In comments to The Wall Street Journal, President Serzh Sargsyan said
Armenia's government would continue to push for a negotiated settlement
to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has simmered for nearly
two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But he also tapped
the rising tensions in one of the world's key energy corridors.
"Unfortunately, I believe Azerbaijan is waiting for an occasion to
start a conflict," President Sargsyan said Thursday. "I am confident
such a mistake would harm the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia
but that most harm would come to the people of Azerbaijan....We
won't stand aside when the population of Nagorno-Karabakh is going
to be destroyed."
The Armenian president also said that his government was pushing
forward to tackle rampant corruption and that Armenia's economy had
posted a 7% expansion in the year through September. That signals
Armenia's emergence from an economic crisis.
The Wall Street Journal reminds that "the war of words intensified in
August, when Azeri President Ilham Aliyev offered a hero's welcome
to Ramil Safarov, an Azeri officer convicted of hacking an Armenian
to death with an ax on a NATO course in Hungary in 2004. The affair
prompted a diplomatic storm, and Armenia withdrew its ambassador
to Hungary."
"What is the reason for establishing such a xenophobic atmosphere and
hatred against Armenians in Azerbaijan?" President Sargsyan said. "It
is easier to create such an atmosphere, to encourage hate speech,
rather than deal with the consequences of that atmosphere and turn
the tide back."
"Washington and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have watched
developments with mounting alarm. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton warned of the threat of a "much broader conflict" when she
visited Armenia in June. NATO Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen
has expressed his "deep concern" in September over the dramatic
escalation in rhetoric between the capitals," the papaer writes.
President Sargsyan's statements underscored the need for the
international community to engage more actively, analysts said.
President Sargsyan also warned that the prospect of a military strike
against Iran, with which Armenia shares a border, was an issue of
"extreme concern" which could set off a sequence of events that could
also trigger a conflict between Yerevan and Baku.
He said deeper international engagement in the region was vital to
help reduce tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia. "If we had been
living in an isolated region where there was no international impact,
war would have already begun," he said.