Humanitarian problems in Nagorno-Karabakh dispute can be addressed only after a political solution to the conflict is found, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan stated in an interview with ‘Echo’ of Moscow.

According to him, it is difficult to expect any significant results in solving humanitarian issues at this time.

“When I speak of long-term peace, I am referring to some change in people’s psychology. There is such anti-Armenian rhetoric and xenophobia in Azerbaijan that even a new phrase has appeared -all Armenian plottings. Azeris have blamed Armenians for all their problems, starting from refugees to an iron malfunctioning in their house. The humanitarian issues could have been and needed to be discussed in 1995, after the truce was signed. It was a very good opportunity for us to somehow try to forget the grief.  However, the Azerbaijani leadership chose another path; they considered it a respite and began to arm. They waited for a good time when they would earn a lot of petrodollars and could afford to buy weapons and could resolve the issue by force,” Sargsyan said.

“Azerbaijan is the only country in OSCE area that boasts a large increase in its military spending. It is rather unclear to me. Actually, to tell you the truth, it is clear. I understand the OSCE members’ position but not that of the world powers who always say peace should be established in Karabakh and all issues should be resolved peacefully. These are good words, but only declarations are signed when there is a gap between words and deeds. We signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, in which quotas have been set. I understand the complexities of the treaty and some countries’ attitude towards the treaty. But either we must say the agreement does not exist, or should we call on colleagues and members of the organization to comply with treaty commitments,” the President noted.

Serzh Sargsyan also referred to the possible resumption of hostilities, stressing that this is the most undesirable way. “To tell you the truth, we have no choice. Only our desire to resolve the conflict peacefully is not enough. If there is no other way out, we will find ourselves in the situation of the early 90’s. We should protect our population by any means,” he said.

“I remember the situation in the period of 1988 to 1994 very well, when many did not spare efforts to say that in the case of large-scale military operations, Azeris will have tea in Stepanakert or someone will wash his feet in Sevan within a few days. Thank God it did not happen, because we protected our land, families and homes.

In 1994, Azerbaijan was simply forced to ask for a truce. In 1993, four UN Security Council resolutions demanded that the hostilities be stopped immediately, and Azerbaijan failed to do so. Now they claim that Armenia failed to comply with these resolutions. However, the international community knows that it did not depend on us. We defended ourselves.”

“I have repeatedly stated that we are against a war, but that doesn’t mean we are afraid of it. If by some miracle Karabakh was under Azerbaijani control even for an hour, there would be no Armenian left there. We must protect our population using any means necessary,” the President stressed.