Military Rhetoric Has Become PR for the Authorities, Says Ohanyan

The recent war has shown that the Armenian authorities are actually under duress. We need people who can negotiate and who are not under coercion. In this regard, the situation of the Armenian authorities is very poor today. This was stated today during a conversation with journalists by Seyran Ohanyan, the leader of the ‘Armenia’ faction and former Minister of Defense.

According to him, the demarcation and delimitation works cannot be advantageous for Armenia, as currently Azerbaijanis have entered Armenian territory, and the negotiations around delimitation and demarcation will proceed in this situation.

The deputy also emphasized that the provisions stipulated in the law on administrative-territorial division cannot serve as a basis for clarifying the state borders with Azerbaijan. “The statement of November 9 mentions that the parties, at least in that section— in the Syunik area—stay at the points, at the landmarks, where the war ended. If the authorities had the experience to negotiate and form security and border situations, they should have understood that the adversary, the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem, is very reluctant to retreat from the points where their soldiers are positioned, where they have established engineering structures for themselves. Therefore, we should have remained in the places where the war ended; afterward, based on the results of negotiations, we could move forward or backward, depending on the legal treaty basis, which is grounded in a peace agreement. In this situation, signing a peace agreement with Azerbaijan means recognizing Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, which would be a severe blow to the Republic of Artsakh and the people of Artsakh,” said Seyran Ohanyan.

He also emphasized that there are no maps that should serve as the basis for border clarification. “Different maps are referenced—military, military, Soviet Union, while Azerbaijan itself has refused to be the legal successor of Soviet Azerbaijan. We do not have the basis to go with Azerbaijan to create a global peace situation and sign a peace agreement,” said Ohanyan.

Addressing the arrest of former Minister of Defense David Tonoyan, Seyran Ohanyan noted that this was another attempt to create a spectacle. “When any covert process starts, the authorities create such spectacles to divert public attention. Both David Tonoyan and the military generals involved in this case, if they are summoned, would peacefully go to the NSS. Unnecessary searches, unnecessary rhetoric,” noted the former minister and emphasized that the rhetoric against the army has turned into PR for the authorities.