We Also Want Baku and Ankara: Sergey Bagratyan

The newspaper "Hraparak" reports: "Sergey Bagratyan, who defected from the Prosperous Armenia Party to the Civil Contract party, delivered another speech from the parliament podium yesterday about the former 'hellish' days, noting that it was followed by 'salvation'. He attempted to justify the handover of Artsakh, claiming that 100 percent of our people oppose it, but we must look directly at reality. According to Bagratyan, the reality is that our strategic ally has turned its back on us: 'The status quo was maintained as a result of our joint efforts with our strategic ally. And when the leader of our strategic ally declared that it considers Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, the balance in the region was disrupted. The people will no longer forgive us if we fall into the arms of a dream instead of standing firmly on real state ground.'

After the speech, we asked: the reality is that Aliyev wants all of Armenia. Is it possible for them to be realistic about giving up Artsakh, thinking that we could just give it away and be done with it? 'We also want Baku, we want Ankara,' he responded. Your wanting is not enough; Nikol Pashinyan does not want it and has repeatedly stated that he has no territorial claims against Azerbaijan. 'No country has territorial claims against another when it becomes a UN member; all countries sign off on this, recognizing each other's territorial integrity.'

Azerbaijan not only has territorial claims but also takes actions. In this reality, you are calling on citizens to give everything away? 'The reality is that a peace treaty should be signed. Besides that, if the people of Artsakh can defend their rights, we are with them on all issues.' For more details, see today’s issue of the newspaper.