Levon Ter-Petrosyan: Constant threat of war resumption is the key  reason of population outflow from Armenia  

ArmInfo.Constant threat of war resumption is the key reason of population outflow from Armenia, the first president of Armenia, Armenian National Congress (ANC) leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan said at the 2nd ANC congress in Yerevan on December 17.    

He said that since 1998 the country's authorities have been guided by  a destructive political philosophy based on maintenance of the status  quo in Nagorno-Karabakh and retention of the Turkish blockade. He  thinks it is the protracted conflict that is exhausting the country  and making it weaker with every passing day. In this context, he  expressed confidence that now the negotiations cover more unfavorable  documents for the Armenian side than in 1998. "There is no solution  to the conflict other than the phased one that was mentioned even in  1997. But I am convinced that at that time the matter concerned a  higher status of Nagorno-Karabakh than now. So, we have missed the  right moment and lost 18 years, during which we could have developed  the country and strengthened it," the first president stressed.

The politician thinks that if no solution is found now, in the future  the settlement options will be worse than now. "The contemporary  world is not guided by medieval or jungle laws. So, there is no  solution to the conflict other than mutual concessions. An  alternative to these concessions is war that can have tragic  consequences such as large-scale migration. The Armenian citizens are  leaving the country not so much due to the hard socio-economic  situation, poverty, lack of justice, corruption, but because of the  threat of war resumption," he said.

Ter-Petrosyan is sure that the danger of missing the right moment to  settle the Karabakh conflict is still there, and this is proved by  the active efforts of Russia in the Karabakh settlement. He recalled  his statement that the key to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict  resolution is in the hands of Russia. "The West, which does not  consider the Karabakh settlement among its priorities, not only  realizes this, but also estimates the special role of Moscow in the  process," he noted. 

According to him, the April war must have demonstrated to Azerbaijan  how rapidly the Armenian people respond to external threats and how  fast they consolidate. "So, in the next war, mo matter when it is  unleashed by Baku, Azerbaijan will be defeated and will lose some  more districts, and only God knows what will happen after that," he  said. The first president also stressed that despite the bellicose  statements of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, he considers Aliyev  to be a rational statesman who can make a symmetrical step towards  peace. "We equally sympathize both Armenians and Azerbaijanis, who  suffer from the unresolved conflict, and we believe in the  possibility of peaceful coexistence of the two nations and in  establishment of good neighborly relations," Ter-Petrosyan added. 

He also noted that the establishment of good neighborly relations  with Azerbaijan and Turkey depends only on the settlement of the  Karabakh conflict. Moreover, he believes that Turkey has made no  hostile actions against the Armenian side, except the blockade  imposed on Armenia. "In case the Karabakh conflict is resolved, the  Armenian-Turkish relations will normalize by themselves," he said.