If You Don’t Defend Yourself in Your Sovereign Territory, Everyone Will Disregard You. "Haykakan Zham"

"Haykakan Zham" newspaper writes: "We asked Armenian political scientist Andranik Mkhitaryan living in Russia about whether the Armenian society, which has for years been fed the notion that the Russian Federation is the sole guarantor of Armenia's security and a strategic partner, has the right to claim such a thing after the events of the past year, and whether the complaints that Russia has betrayed us are justified.

“What nonsense, you are abnormal. If a nation does not defend itself, why should anyone else come to its aid? We hear parents saying, 'Let our children not go to Artsakh, let our children not go to war.' Didn’t we want war? Now we get both the war and the humiliation. Who is to blame?” Mkhitaryan reacted angrily.

We countered that the military actions in 2020 took place in the territory of Artsakh, while now the discussion is about the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia. Back then, Russia claimed it had no obligations regarding the territory because Artsakh is not recognized by Armenia, and now the aggression is directed against Armenia itself, a member of the CSTO and an ally of Russia. Meanwhile, we currently have nearly one hundred captives, casualties, and injured, yet the Russians continue to characterize all these events as 'border incidents.'

Andranik Mkhitaryan stated, "This has nothing to do with the sovereign territory. If you do not even defend yourself in your sovereign territory, everyone will disregard you. If you stand, if you fight, you will be defended and respected. If you do not do that, then you are rubbish, and you have no right to have a state."

For more details, see today's issue of the newspaper.