Sargsyan’s regime makes enemy of Azerbaijan for its own gain
By Sara Rajabova
More people are trying to escape Armenia, as situation in this highly corrupted country ruled by military junta is getting worse every passing day.
People turn to the other countries for getting rid of the miserable economic situation that continue in the country many years, and the pressure by the incompetent government, which silence the protesters by all means.
Oppressed by government’s continuous pressure, some of Armenians even don’t hesitate to flee Azerbaijan, a country that has witnessed Armenian hostility for many years.
Trying to escape from government’s torture and to protect himself and his family, Vahan Martirosyan, the head of the National Liberation Movement organization, has recently asked for a political asylum in Azerbaijan.
The opposition organization headed by Martirosyan was persecuted by the state agencies and some authorized people in Armenia.
The Armenian activist held a press conference in Baku on September 18, where revealed the true face of Armenia’s military dictatorship.
Martirosyan said that his public and political work against Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s criminal regime and corruption in Armenia led to pressures on him by that country’s government.
He also said Sargsyan’s regime makes an enemy of Azerbaijan for its own gain and has brought Armenia’s economy to a collapse.
“No one wants a resumption of war in Armenia. That would be the greatest tragedy for our two peoples,” Martirosyan said, noting this would be beneficial to those who make profit from such a situation.
Martirosyan went on to say that in its current state Armenia’s army is unable to fight back not only the Azerbaijani army “but also an army of a third African country.”
He added that everyone in Armenia deviates from military service, as “there are many non-combat losses. Armenian army will be doomed to fail in case of a war.”
Martirosyan also added that Armenia’s Council of National Security has a very strong pressure on citizens and can make them give any testimony.
He explained that this is why the Armenian athletes, who visited Azerbaijan to join the First European Games, upon returning to Armenia, started telling lies about Azerbaijan.
“This is why the Armenian family that previously fled to Azerbaijan and then returned to Armenia, was telling nasty things about Azerbaijan,” Martirosyan said.
He added that it was a matter of hours when he decided to flee from Armenia.
Martirosyan also said he didn’t go for a peace with Sargsyan’s people and for this reason several criminal cases were filed against him.
He also spoke about the prosecution and pressure he faced in Armenia. “I was prosecuted for my activity as a public and human rights defender. The situation reached its peak when on August 14 this year a close friend of Sargsyan attacked me in my own house and beat me in front of my family and elderly mother. My wife was beaten, and lost her unborn child. My mother was subjected to pressure. Fake documents were drafted via medical agencies to persuade that we were not beaten,” Martirosyan noted.
The Armenian activist stressed that with the help of the Azerbaijani media, he aims to draw the attention of the international community and Armenian diaspora to the criminal regime of Sargsyan.
“No one will tell the truth about Sargsyan’s criminal regime better than the Azerbaijani media. This is one of the reasons why I am here,” Martirosyan said.
He also showed gratitude for the hospital attitude he met in Azerbaijan.
“I wasn’t expecting a hundredth of the hospitality that I have met here. The attitude towards me is excellent, at the highest level. I think if the borders are opened, a huge stream of refugees from Armenia will rush to Azerbaijan,” he said.
Martirosyan went on to say that Armenia lives worse than the most backward African countries.
“There are no jobs in Armenia. If people did not receive help from relatives living abroad, it would starve to death long ago. Corruption is at a very high level,” Martirosyan said.
The Armenian activist further said Armenia creates groups of refugees from the Middle East for sending them to Nagorno-Karabakh in order to involve them in military operations.
He said during the military operations in the Middle East, around 15,000-20,000 refugees, mostly of Armenian origin, came to Armenia.
“Witnessing all the horrors in Armenia, the majority of them left immediately. Groups for sending to Nagorno-Karabakh are created from the rest, mainly those who have a criminal record,” Martirosyan said.
Armenian leadership settles the Armenian refugees from Syria in Azerbaijan’s occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region with a purpose to change the demographic composition of Azerbaijan’s occupied territories.
Settling Syrian refugees on the occupied Azerbaijani territories constitutes an international crime, since the settlement of the refugees in disputed territories is not acceptable under international law.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned that the settlement of refugees in occupied territories is a very dangerous process with unpredictable consequences.
Martirosyan further noted that nobody wants to live in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, occupied by the Armenian armed forces in early 1990s.
"There are uninhabited towns in Nagorno-Karabakh. If a referendum is held in Nagorno-Karabakh now, people will vote to reunite with Azerbaijan," he said.
Armenia captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions from Azerbaijan in a war that followed the Soviet breakup in 1991. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and nearly 1 million were displaced as a result of the war.
Large-scale hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered ceasefire in 1994 but Armenia continued the occupation in defiance of four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal. Peace talks mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. have produced no results so far.