Bako Sahakyan: Nagorno-Karabakh has played and will play one of the  key roles in the history and geopolitics of Transcaucasia

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.