Armenia must be ready to confront Azerbaijan at any time, despite the state of the settlement of the Karabakh conflict and the situation in the region, said the Armenian president Robert Kocharyan on April 27 during the meeting with the students of Yerevan State University. “I think the attention we give to the force, the army, for enhancing its effectiveness, upgrading armament, and the general state of defense is evidence that we are not asleep, we are not going to sleep, and are indomitable to guarantee the security of Karabakh,” Kocharyan says. With regard to the present stage of the talks over Karabakh, the president said the talks are not active now. “The foreign ministers met, and perhaps everyone is used to hear sometimes optimistic, sometimes pessimistic statements after these meetings. I have nothing to add today. The last meeting of Oskanyan and Mammedyarov took place in a calmer atmosphere than the previous one. Many were optimistic about it. I am not optimistic now,” says Kocharyan. He said he will probably meet with the Azerbaijani president on June 10 in Saint Petersburg. The co-chairs are working towards it, and afterwards the future development of the talks will start being outlined. "The Armenian side should be prepared always to resist any tension… The attention we are paying to our armed forces-to raise its efficiency and upgrade our weapons-suggests that ‘we are not sleeping’ and security is a high priority for the country, and our policy is aimed and will be aimed at further boosting the army’s combat-readiness and paying particular attention to security issues in general… We are very determined to guarantee the security of Nagorno-Karabakh," Kocharyan said. Kocharyan added that the April 18 meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in Belgrade, Serbia, which Armenian minister Vardan Oskanyan said was much more relaxed than their previous meeting in Geneva, gave rise to optimistic notes, but the president added, "I am not that optimistic now."
After the Belgrade meeting, Oskanyan was quoted by local media as saying that based on the content of a current framework agreement overseen by the Minsk Group, Armenia and Azerbaijan have never been so close to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as they are now. Fortunately they hadn’t yet completely devoured the president, and yesterday had also managed to speak about the nuclear programs of Iran. According to him, it’s not favorable for Armenia to have Iran with a nuclear weapon. On the other hand, he mentioned that Iran doesn’t even have the purpose to have a nuclear weapon. “”During our meetings, the President of Iran, Ahmadinejad, personally told me that,” mentioned Kocharyan, and added that he doesn’t believe in any sanctions. “It’s been many years that Turkey has been keeping the border with Armenia closed. What have they achieved? Nothing. And of course no matter how long they keep the border closed we are not going to forget the Genocide issue,” announced Kocharyan. He also mentioned that our country was able to overcome the most complicated part of the transition period. “The radical reforms are done in our country, however there is still a lot to be done. The country will probably be considered a country in transition for perhaps the coming 5 years.” Also, the reforms that he mentioned were mostly implemented by Kocharyan’s predecessor.
