Kocharyan: We cannot demand from others to be more pro-Armenian than  our authorities

ArmInfo. Both I and the third president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan  will fight to ensure that Nagorno-Karabakh will never be part of Azerbaijan; we will do  everything for this, but we cannot speak on behalf of the current  authorities of Armenia. Second President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan  stated this at a press conference on February 17, while he expressed  the hope that the Armenian people would not allow such an outcome,  where Artsakh would be part of Azerbaijan.

To the remark about why he, like Serzh Sargsyan, does not say that  Karabakh will never be part of Azerbaijan, Kocharyan noted: "because  I am not in power, and I cannot guarantee this."

"If the Armenian authorities agree with the option of territorial  integrity, then in a short time there will be no Armenians left in  Karabakh, and the current authorities have already recognized that  Karabakh should be part of Azerbaijan. This option should be  excluded. The Armenian people should never agree with this, we must  fight to prevent this from happening. Our argument was as follows:  the Sumgayit events (pogroms and massacres of Armenians in the city  of Sumgayit in February 1988, ed. note) showed that coexistence of  Armenians in Azerbaijan is impossible, this is a constant threat to  their lives and security. The 44-day war confirmed this even more,"  he said, recalling that he had never negotiated the option that  Karabakh would be part of Azerbaijan. Kocharyan once again stressed  that he does not see Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan at all.

To the reproach why he still did not respond to the words of Russian  President Vladimir Putin that Karabakh is an integral part of  Azerbaijan, and whether he agrees with this statement, Kocharyan  recalled that he was a co-author of the Declaration on the  Independence of Karabakh. "This Declaration is still invulnerable  from a legal point of view. When I participated in the negotiation  process, there was not a single document that would suggest that  Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. We even discussed the option of  joining Karabakh to Armenia in Key West. My approach in this case is  clear," Kocharyan stressed.

Why did the President of Russia say so, Kocharyan continued, I  suppose, in the realities that were during the war and after it. "If  the authorities of our country do not respond to Aliyev's statements  that the issue has been finally resolved, then why do you expect  Armenia to react to what Russia says? The Russian President listens  to the statements of Aliyev, Erdogan, the Turkish Foreign Minister  and does not hear any reaction from Armenia. Do you want the  President of Russia to be more pro-Armenian than the Prime Minister  of Armenia, or the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry to be more  pro-Armenian than the head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry?" the  second president asked.  "Yes, you are right, I didn't like this  statement. But, put yourself in their place. And you don't know  whether I expressed an opinion during personal communication or not.  We should not demand from others to be more pro-Armenian than our  authorities. Problem here," he said, adding that he had the  opportunity to communicate with Putin, but he is not in the habit of  talking about this communication.

Answering the question about the true reasons for the resignation of  first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and rumors that his opponents,  including Kocharyan himself, presented  Ter-Petrosyan (the first  president of Armenia - ed. note) a certain document, according to  which the area of Nagorno-Karabakh will be 8 thousand sq. km and, and  if Ter-Petrosyan cannot immediately recognize this, he must leave and  he left, Kocharyan noted that he did not know the events described.  "It just didn't happen. I don't know where you got such information.I  described the events of that time in detail in my book. There wasn't  more. True, there wasn't. Then there was a dispute about a phased  version, the transfer of territories, peacekeepers. We advocated a  package settlement and said that if we leave the territories, the  next step would be the destruction of Artsakh. We did not believe,  and there was no reason to believe in Azerbaijan. Just then we told  Ter-Petrosyan - leave. He didn't want to leave. That's all",  Kocharyan noted.

As for the options, according to the second president, in fact,  throughout the entire history of the conflict, all the options,  including those proposed to Ter-Petrosyan at the time, were much  better than the current actual situation. "Incomparably better than  what we have now. This is a fact. In any case, in all options, Hadrut  and Shushi were, according to the status of the negotiation process  within the framework of the Minsk Group, internationally recognized  statuses to one degree or another, more or less. We got the worst  option. The authorities have announced that they are starting from  scratch and have brought the process to a zero point," Kocharyan  concluded.