ArmInfo. Nagorno-Karabakh has played, is playing and will continue to play one of the key roles in the history and geopolitics of Transcaucasia, the Armenian people and statehood. Former President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan stated this, on October 28 during the fifth meeting of the International Russian-Armenian Lazarev Club in the format of a Moscow-Yerevan video bridge on the topic: "The historical past and present of Russian-Armenian relations".
In his opinion, this is not at all an exaggeration of Artsakh's role in ensuring the military-strategic balance in the region and the formation of a balanced and predictable geopolitical configuration also for the Russian Federation.
"Today we are going through a turning point in history. Our countries and peoples are facing deep security threats. We are faced with a serious choice: either, taking into account the rapidly changing world order, make significant adjustments to our livelihoods, or, not noticing the changes that are taking place, slide into positions prepared for us by other centers and positional forces," Sahakyan noted, adding that this would have a dangerous consequence, since "without any exaggeration, our common future is at stake."
At the same time, the former head of Artsakh believes that in order to prevent such consequences and neutralize threats, it is necessary to pursue a clearly expressed principled and maximally active policy.
Sahakyan noted that in this context, the active policy of Turkey, its actions before and after the 44-day war in 2020, imposed by Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, are especially indicative.
"Turkey, a member of NATO, did not hide at all and still clearly states that it was it who stood next to Azerbaijan and actively supported it in the aggression against Artsakh. Small Nagorno-Karabakh with a population of 150,000 people turned out to be one on one with countries with a total population of 95 million people, with a NATO member and thousands of international terrorists and thugs, with the complete inaction of the international community and countries, the timely reaction of which the people of bleeding Artsakh were so looking forward to," the politician noted.
At the same time, he pointed to the temptation of the enemies to finally destroy the Karabakh-Armenian statehood and carry out their expansionist and misanthropic plans. It is obvious, he continued, that the forces that want to redistribute the geopolitical landscape of the Caucasus, oust Russia from here and dismantle the Armenian statehood from here, consider the destruction of Nagorno-Karabakh as a key component of achieving success.
In this regard, Sahakyan noted the inadmissibility of this, and called, while there is still such an opportunity, to take appropriate steps by joint efforts. He pointed out the need to eliminate mistakes and miscalculations that could have irreversible consequences for the Armenian statehood.
"We must stop "flirting", which poses a direct threat to our national interests," Sahakyan said.