Sargsyan: Azerbaijan threatens us with a new war

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan accused Azerbaijan of threatening a new war in Nagorno Karabakh.

Azerbaijan is accumulating a "horrendous quantity" of arms in preparation for a resumption of fighting, President Sargsyan told Reuters in an interview.

He said Armenia wants a negotiated settlement to the conflict and that he will spare no effort to achieve it. "Now 18 years after the signing of this ceasefire agreement, Azerbaijan threatens us with a new war," Sargsyan said.

"When I say that there is hatred towards Armenians, a general xenophobia in Azerbaijan; when I say there is a dangerous accumulation of armaments in Azerbaijan; when I say Azerbaijan is getting prepared for resuming military hostilities and settling the conflict by military means, that doesn't mean at all that there is no need to continue with negotiations," he said.

Sargsyan said the pardon of the Azeri axe-killer Ramil Safarov showed that Nagorno Karabakh can never be part of Azerbaijan."It again reconfirms our view that the people of Nagorno Karabakh have no future in the framework of Azerbaijan."

"We have no doubt that Azerbaijan's aim is to change the situation by the application of its military means and the only preventative mechanism for their desires is the combat-readiness of the Armenian armed forces," Sargsyan said.

The Armenian leader called on the international community to take "concrete steps" in the search for a settlement.

He said Azerbaijan is in violation of a European treaty limiting holdings of weaponry. Inspectors were aware of the situation "and there is zero action on this".

Asked if he is confident he will see a solution to the Karabakh conflict, he said: “I'm confident.”

"At least I hope that I will never see Nagorno Karabakh incorporated in the Azerbaijani framework again and that in itself is a huge success," he said.