– Mr. Ter-Tadevosyan, currently Armenia is considered an occupant state by a number of international organizations and those urge us remove our troops from the liberated territories. What is your opinion about these urges and claims?
– I think that in the internal and external aspects the issue of the NKR is considered unilateral. We don’t have self-criticism. Azerbaijan and Turkey are always guilty and we are always right. This is our standpoint but the international community is neutral on the surface but has an evident pro-Azerbaijani attitude. I think that certain things exist that we are not aware of and those organizations don’t bother to update us on that. One thing is clear for sure. Since the first day of our independence our nation has been struggling for it. We didn’t attack, we were only protecting ourselves. Besides that during the defense we had certain victory and forgot about many of the international obligations. We were not able to present the situation in a relevant manner to the international community. Instead of showing that we had won the war we should have showed that we had defended our land and our people. I may say that we were protecting for 99% and 1% was connected with the fact that under these circumstances mistakes are always made.
– What was that mistake?
– Our mistake was that during the liberation of Kelbajar we have sent troops from Armenia there. Besides that our mistake was that we had had successes and we had advertised our success stories. Less than a month after the liberation of Shushi in 92, political games were launched. Our soldiers confronted each other because one of the regiments was pro-ANM, the other pro-Dashnak. A situation was created when all of us were fighting against the Turks and inside the political forces were struggling against each other. I criticized both of them. I said that we are military and have got nothing to do with political affairs. Both the ANM and the Dashnaks had investments in the war but each of them was trying to take on the victory. Instead of fighting the foreign enemy they were fighting and struggling against each other. This was our mistake.
– In the political circles they are speaking of the return of territories in a certain context. You have lost many military friends for the fight of these territories. Do you find possible the return of the liberated territories to Azerbaijan?
– Back in 94 in Bishkek the representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Karabakh signed a document, which clearly said we had to remove our troops from the liberated territories. It means that our mistakes have stemmed back from those times. And we continue making mistakes up until now. If we were able to sign a document like that back in the day what patriotism are we talking about now? Indeed, our President has stated that we are ready for the return of the territories as a compromise but the compromise should be bi-lateral. But there are no compromises from the other side. That is the reason why they have started to make statements and now Turkey is saying what would it be if Armenia returned 2 regions? What would it be if they had returned to us Kars? In this war, I have lost many military friends, close and good friends. I don’t understand how can we possibly return, compromise or replace those territories? I will always oppose these decisions. Politicians are thinking of one thing, the military people are thinking of a different thing. Nevertheless, the issue is solved via politicians but my thing is to warn that we should possibly avoid retuning even an inch of land. I don’t wish to say anything bad about them but by remembering their cruelty and violence in relation to our nation and cultural values I don’t trust them and wouldn’t rely on their promises. It turns out that we get to live next to them but we should be always alert.
– Many people, including you, have said that the NKR conflict has appeared in a deadlock. In this context do you see the threat of resumption of war?
– Armenia is a member state of the Collective Pact, which means that in the event of war the states of this structure should support Armenia. I think that the risk of war is real but it will be not between Armenia and Azerbaijan but between Azerbaijan and NKR. If God forbid Azerbaijan takes this step first it will definitely end tragically for that country. Indeed, it will be bad for us as well but I should say that in the military sector our knowledge, abilities and experience as well as the mental preparedness of our soldiers is pretty high.
– Today many political forces insist that Armenia should recognize the independence of the NKR as soon as possible so that it would have the legal right to negotiate around this issue. What is your opinion about that?
– Indeed if the recognition of the NKR on part of Armenia positively affected the NKR conflict resolution it would be significant and necessary. But I should say that today Armenia is in a negative zone. Today Armenia conducts an independent and blind policy. No one knows who Armenia consults with and takes advice from. In the meantime the political course of Turkey and Azerbaijan is pretty clear. Their diplomatic potential cannot be underestimated. These two countries are working mutually agreed on behalf of their states. But we are alone and nobody is supporting us. We do what others tell us to do like pioneers. For example, we have always been the historic ally of Russia and we consider it our strategic partner. But as we see, based on certain economic interests Russia recently built quite proximate relations with Turkey. At any rate we are a very old nation; have a wealthy history and our values have a big interest in the civilization. We are a nation that went through genocide but today live on the land of our grandparents. And the value of the Azerbaijanis is the oil and if these reserves are over in 20-30 years Azerbaijan will no longer have the same interest.