DILIJAN. - No talks on setting peacekeeping forces on the Karabakh-Azerbaijani contact line are underway or have ever been held.
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan said the aforementioned at the meeting with demobilized servicemen in Dilijan on Friday.
According to him, after the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, the peacekeeping forces will eventually be set up, that is certain.
To the question of one of the servicemen as to whether it is not time to punish Azerbaijan, which had increased its territory during the April war, Sargsyan said:“I have never supported the view that we can force capitulation on Azerbaijan. In the modern world only the states which have a significant role and exceed their adversary by dozens of times can seize the territories of another country.
Suppose we initiate a military operation and seize another two or three areas. What will this result in afterwards? Will the Azeris surrender? If you mean another thing—that we should not only defend ourselves but also initiate actions when they launch military actions—that is also an option. An option, which is constantly considered by us. But what is acceptable to us is to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue and give it a final status.”
Referring to the nation-army ideology, Sargsan said: “We were a nation-army in Karabakh, since the danger was great. Our people did their best for us not to lose Karabakh and defend our borders. Fortunately we managed to do this. We paid a great price but managed to defend ourselves, this being the most important thing. Participants of the nation-army should not necessarily be in Armenia: All those who live in the United States, Russia or Argentina and support this idea are members of the nation-army.”
