– Do the recent visits of the State Secretaries of the US and the deputy-ministers of foreign affairs to Armenia, yesterday’s meeting of Dmitry Medvedev and in the near future the meeting of Aliyev and Sargsyan mean that the regulation of the NKR conflict steps into a new phase?
– First of all a new year has started. The last year was wrapped up and it’s necessary to start some new steps. The visits of both Karasin and Steinberg perhaps had the purpose of exchanging opinions; to understand to what extent the parties are ready to take new steps for the peaceful resolution of the conflict. Indeed, we should also take into account the fact that in the case of the US and the EU there are other matters as well. The spark of the series of revolutions in the Northern African countries creates new concerns and it approaches our region as well. On this background we have the increase of oil price and the possible tension of situation in the Saudi Arabia. They also signify the undertaking of decisive steps for Nabucco to provide the southern flow. In this aspect we should say that the Russian-Azerbaijani possible cooperation may be considered as a not very dangerous way of gas provision. And this may hinder Nabucco. So these meetings may be reviewed in this whole context.
– So these meetings mostly pursue economic goals, don’t they?
– I have always said that economy and politics cannot be separated. Very often economy dictates the conduct of politics and vice versa. Or often time those two are combined.
– Has the possibility of resumption of war increased that caused the concerns of these high-rank foreign politicians?
– The threat was always there. At this moment Azerbaijani militaristic eloquence has augmented. But the visits were always taking place at least during the past decade. The year was summed up in the OSCE. The new year is starting with new ideas and initiatives. If we are following the media we may see that they are discussing the possibility that Turkey is coming to an agreement with Azerbaijan, according to which in the event of compromises one or two regions there might be possibility of rapprochement of Turkish-Armenian relations. So as a precondition they don’t demand the full resolution of the NKR conflict. We will see what the further development will be. We will have the next portion of information, which would allow us to analyze the future developments.
– In the event of the dissemination of the revolutionary wave of the Arabic states will the high-rank politicians become more interested in a similar unrest in Armenia or they’d wish the opposite – that is the status quo that we have in our country?
– A very important thing has happened. All the dictators have realized that the era of lying and cheating to people through propaganda is gone. The developments of new technologies allow the societies to become more aware and more painstakingly fight for their rights. And that is the reason why we notice the emphasis of the democratic developments in the statements of the US foreign affairs department. They also signify the matters of protection of human rights. There is a serious debate in the American society to understand to what extent the development of human rights and democracy is important in those countries. And it’s necessary to pass to concrete steps of protection of human rights instead of from oratory. And this whole wave is spread in the Oriental World. Many changes are taking place. So why was the US or Europe tolerating these dictators? Because in many cases they were forced to do so due to oil and gas interests. On the one hand it was a matter of political support and on the other hand the interest in fuel. That is the reason why the whole world is waiting impatiently to find out whether Saudi Arabia will join this wave or not. The mentioned country has a very important role in the organization in charge of exportation of oil. All these matters are interlinked.
– Do you find the uprising in the African states possible for Armenia?
– It is up to the Armenian people to decide. If the people are tolerating this government then this wave won’t reach here. As the recent developments showed in those countries the people couldn’t tolerate the government any more. It was only a good impulse for others by saying “if that country was able to do so why can’t we?” In this regard, this was a good command for the Armenian people to understand that any dictator can be ousted.
– Our people didn’t succeed in making changes. Were the governmental levers strong or just our people failed and they didn’t fight till the end? Perhaps in Armenia the situation wasn’t that bad.
– Both can be said in this case. The government in the meantime is trying its best to intimidate and terrorize the government. This can be said about the incidents of yesterday when the young people were just trying to pass out information leaflets. In the 21st century the police officers are taking to the police department young girls for disseminating leaflets. They are trying to concretely terrorize the young people and the society in general. And as long as the society doesn’t realize that the next victim is going to be each and every one of us we should all know that this is a small country and this can happen to any of us any time. Today the child of a person is killed in the army, next day some other’s person’s child may be killed. If we start to realize this as a general problem for the society everything will be fine. Any movement will succeed in that case. The individual complaints cannot bring results as those may be ignored. People should fight for their rights jointly. One or two pickets do not solve the issue. Long lasting struggle is necessary. No society has attained freedom via one or two pickets. They should find long enough to ensure that their rights are restored and not trampled. All these groups in charge of social issues should also bring up political issues as ultimately these tough social conditions are a result of ignorant politics.
– Recently the international community didn’t recognize the results of the elections in Belarus. In the case of the Arabic countries the West constantly follows the process and demands from the leaders of those states to be more liberal and democratic. In the case of Armenia we didn’t have the same scenario. After the elections of 2008 the Armenian society has held huge rallies and then we had the tragic events of March 1. Why didn’t the people of Armenia get the support of the international community?
– Everybody is pursuing their national interests. This is our issue and we should resolve it. Finally, nobody was showing any support in Egypt or Tunisia. The whole world was following with sport interest the events in those states. The people forced their dictators to flee.