Ex-President: Protraction of solution to Karabakh conflict will further weaken Armenia

By Azernews

By Rashid Shirinov

The protraction of solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict will further weaken Armenia, the leader of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), Armenia's first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan said on December 28.

He noted that since 2007, and most intensively during the last years, the Armenian authorities conduct negotiations on the “Madrid-Kazan-Lavrov” version, which, in essence, doesn’t differ from the phased variant of 1997.

Ter-Petrosyan said the Armenian authorities are negotiating on this variant with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries, in particular with Russia.

The politician noted that in accordance with this version, in the first stage the Armenian side returns to Azerbaijan five of the seven occupied regions. In the second phase, peacekeeping forces are deployed in the region. In the third stage the intermediate status of Nagorno Karabakh is proclaimed, said Ter-Petrosyan. In the fourth phase the blockade of Armenia ends, and communication with Azerbaijan and probably Turkey gets restored.

As for the position of the ANC, Levon Ter-Petrosyan said his party supports the implementation of this plan as the prolongation of the solution to the conflict will further weaken Armenia“ and the next solution will be worse than this one.”

At the recent meeting of his party, the politician noted that Armenia is in a dire situation – poverty and migration grows, the army decays and economy collapses.

Ter-Petrosyan is sure that the Armenian authorities by all means try to preserve the status quo in Karabakh [the occupied region of Azerbaijan]. This, of course, isolates Armenia from the world, and even more harms the people’s wellbeing.