Azernews.Az

YEREVAN - Armenian former president Levon Ter-Petrosian has said that if no solution is found to the two decade-long Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, "there will be no people left in Armenia".
Addressing a meeting of the opposition Armenian National Congress that he chairs, Ter-Petrosian said there are no prospects for political and socio-economic development in Armenia until the Garabagh conflict and Turkish-Armenian reconciliation issues have been resolved.
"If the country remains in blockade, there will be no Armenians left in Armenia in a hundred years," the opposition leader opined, saying the reduction in population supports that conclusion.
Armenia has been sidelined from major projects being implemented in the region due to occupying part of neighboring Azerbaijan’s territory.
Ter-Petrosian did not rule out a resumption of military action in Nagorno Garabagh, an Azerbaijani region that ethnic Armenians backed by Armenia invaded in the early 1990s following a lengthy war.
"So long as the Garabagh conflict remains unresolved, the threat of an eruption of a fresh war will be real. As a result of a diplomacy failure or a stalling settlement the situation may spiral out of control and blood could be shed anew," Ter-Petrosian said.
He regarded as "naive" the views suggesting that the world community and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the military arm of the former Soviet bloc CIS, would prevent Azerbaijan from launching a war to liberate its territories.
Ter-Petrosian noted that "the key" to a solution on Garabagh and Turkish-Armenian normalization is "in Russia’s hands", saying that the South Caucasus has always been and will remain a pivotal region for Russia.
Moscow is highly unlikely to back down from its aims in the vital region, and this explains in part Western inactiveness in the region, he said.
Ter-Petrosian also said Turkey and Azerbaijan are maintaining close ties with Russia and are trying to capitalize on these relations in pursuit of their goals.
"I have always believed that a settlement to the Garabagh conflict is stalling not due to the sides’ failing to reach agreement but, rather, due to this issue’s not being part of Western priorities."