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YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Armenia’s Defense Minister
Seyran Ohanian warned Azerbaijan on Monday against attempting to
win back Nagorno-Karabakh by force, saying that Armenian troops
have significantly beefed up defense fortifications around the
disputed territory and are prepared for another war.
“As defense minister, I’m always getting
ready for that,” Ohanian said when asked about chances of
renewed fighting for Karabakh at a meeting with students and the
faculty of Yerevan State University.
“Both the entire army personnel and all of
our veteran guys, mobilization resources know that the army
command, including the defense minister, would be personally
engaged in all hot and tough spots that might, God forbid,
emerge on our the borders of our republic and Artsakh (Karabakh)
in order to defend our people,” he told them.
Ohanian says the Karabakh army in recent
years further fortified its positions east and north of the
territory in a way that precludes the success of any Azerbaijani
offensive. “The Defense Army of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
has created such a system of fortifications which the enemy can
not attack and overcome in a classical style,” he said.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev regularly states
that Baku will “liberate” Karabakh if the long-running peace
talks with Armenia end in failure. International mediators
disapprove of such threats, saying that the Karabakh conflict
can not be resolved by military means.
Armenian leaders have repeatedly denounced
the war rhetoric. “Such statements show that Azerbaijan is not
prepared for mutual concessions in 2010 as well,” Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian told RFE/RL on January 17. He said
they also “can not make any impact on or intimidate Armenia or
Artsakh.”
Ohanian, who was a senior Karabakh commander
and lost a leg during the 1991-1994 war, likewise insisted that
the Azeri leadership would fail to solve the conflict
“unilaterally.”
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