Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh not for Armenians, says MP
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
Armenians should either cross the border to Azerbaijan or leave the Nagorno-Karabakh region, member of Azerbaijani parliament said.
Parliamentarian, Elman Mammadov believes that Armenians should defect from Armenia and immediately withdraw from Azerbaijan's occupied lands, assuming they know right from wrong, especially in the light of Armenia's aggravated economic difficulties.
Mammadov claimed that Armenia's economy is completely collapsing because of the officials' failure to address the spread of poverty and depreciating quality of life.
"The same situation is observed also with the separatist regime in the Nagorno Karabakh controlled by Yerevan," he said, adding that even Armenia's own statistics expose the diminishing population there, which now stands below 1,5 million people.
Mammadov believes that those who could've left Armenia, already seized the opportunity to abandon the country.
Referring to the Armenian soldier, who surrendered to the Azerbaijani troops, Mammadov said the conscript had made a sensible choice to save his life, since the Armenian servicemen on the frontlines are starving, and are serving alongside criminal commanders.
The serious enmity between the people in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia also aggravates the situation in the Armenian army, the MP said.
"The capitulated Armenian soldier revealed the existing criminal atmosphere in the army. This once again testifies to the fact that the Azerbaijani army will soon liberate the occupied lands. The time has come to do that," he added.
Andranik Grigoryan, who raised a white flag to surrender to the Azerbaijani army on March 22, said in an interrogation that the chaos and intolerable conditions prevailing in the occupied Azerbaijani lands, namely the absence of military discipline, shortages of weapons, ammunition, food and medicines had ultimately led to his defection.
He added that the conflicts between the local Karabakh population and Armenians from Armenia, as well as the mutual hatred between officers and soldiers exacerbated the situation deeply.
Even civilians are coercively entrenched as sentries because of the lack of soldiers, Grigoryan confessed.
Mammadov believes that Armenia has now only two options: either build relations with Azerbaijan to save its statehood or stand ready to be destroyed.
In the other words, amid the ongoing conflict with Azerbaijan, the occupant Armenia will make or break its future depending on its relations with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan's internationally recognized Nagorno-Karabakh territory was turned into a battlefield and zone of aggravated tensions after Armenia sent its troops to occupy Azerbaijan's lands. As a result, 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory stands under military occupation. For the past two decades, and despite calls from the international community, Armenia has refused to withdraw its troops and retreat within its national borders.
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