YEREVAN. – The threats against Armenia continue and Armenia’s tolerance justifies the arguments by those that threaten, opposition National Self-Determination Union (NSU) Chairman Paruyr Hayrikyan stated, during a press conference on Wednesday, speaking on the shortfalls in Armenia’s foreign policy and the risks that threaten the country.  

In his words, Turkey and Azerbaijan are attempting to make the world community believe that the “poor” Azerbaijanis need to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by the use of force. “Everything started out during the tenure of the First President [of Armenia, namely, Levon Ter-Petrosyan]. He could not imagine the situation, and he contributed to the fact that our state took wrong steps. Also, the First President made Armenia enter into a war. The second President [that is, Robert Kocharyan] likewise has no idea of the created situation,” Hayrikyan added.       

According to him, serving President Serzh Sargsyan is the bearer of that adverse legacy. “Sargsyan tried to rectify the situation by way of football diplomacy [with Turkey]. But when he was saying [normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations] without preconditions, no one understood what this was about. As a result, Armenia’s initiative failed,” the NSU leader maintained.   

Paruyr Hayrikyan proposes to oppose Turkey, which has declared an economic war, and, as per Hayrikyan, no alliance is necessary with a country that sells weapons to the adversary. “This situation is created due to the efforts by the Russian imperialism, [and] on the principle of ‘divide and conquer,’” he noted.

In Hayrikyan’s view, Armenia must state that the Karabakh peace talks are not succeeding, since the real negotiating parties are not taking part in the talks, that it will not take part in the talks, and a special committee be established to examine the international legal opportunities to resolve the matter.      

Photo by Sona Barseghyan