News - Karabakh ex-official: We are taking the region to war but we are not preparing Armenia's army for it

If we make a political decision to go for peace with Azerbaijan and Turkey, I am suggesting to our authorities here: they don't even ask you about the road issue, they force you to do it by hitting, beating, but you don't do it because you have promised to that one neighbor that you will not do [it], and it will lead to a regional war. Samvel Babayan, former Secretary of the Security Council and former Minister of Defense of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), stated this in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am. "Secondly, if we [i.e. Armenia] disregard the interest of Iran and Georgia, go in the direction of opening that road, then we have to negotiate with Azerbaijan on how we will pass through their territory, what guarantees there will be. Secondly, Azerbaijan should supply us with [natural] gas for $160, as Russia supplies today. Are Azerbaijan, Turkey, the Western powers going to this? Are they ready to cancel Armenia's 10 billion debt, as they did to Georgia, and Armenia pays 800 million dollars, which today pays interest, to keep its border guard troops with those amounts? Is the West ready for this? If not, then we close that topic, that's it, we move on to another one. I say we are taking the region to war, but we are not preparing the army for it. We are not preparing for anything, like a capricious child we say: ‘I don't want this, I don't want that, but I don't do anything either.’ Now we are in that role," Babayan added. To the question that if the market of 85 million people is taken from under Russia in the case of that road, why is Russia not against the Meghri road, Samvel Babayan responded: "Today, Russia is in a situation where it transports [natural] gas, oil through the territory of Azerbaijan, and Azerbaijan is a serious partner for it. But a phase will come when it will no longer tolerate [it], it will realize that it is blowing it up. We [i.e. Armenia] shouldn't be the occasion for that."