May carries a special message for the Armenian people whose heroic battles were fought and victories won at this time of the year, says Major-General Arkady Ter-Tadevosyan (aka Komandos), a legendary hero of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) liberation battle.
Speaking to Tert.am, the veteran commander, who has many recollections from the historic war (especially the liberation of Shushi), preferred to focus more on the unsettled Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. He said he is strongly opposed to any mutual concession which would “now imply a return of Armenian lands”.
“We will undermine our positions by returning regions. That’s our problem at the moment. I initially thought we could negotiate over a small [land’s] handover in return for something else, but now we understand that the adversary has territorial claims for not only Artsakh but also Zangezur (Armenia’s southern regions of Syunik and Vayots Dzor). Azerbaijan is governed by a pan-Turkist ideology; should we hand over something today, they will demand something else tomorrow and so on and so forth.”
The major-general said he knows also of Azerbaijan’s diplomatic culture allowing the country to find “an easy way out” in absolutely any circumstances. He said he really regrets that the Armenians aren’t skilled enough in diplomacy to highlight their position of a winner.
“With our continuing defeat in diplomacy, we do not really know yet whether we should cede lands or give them water to accept proposals. Nothing is understandable at the moment. Azerbaijan alone is not to blame for this uncertainty; we have our faults too, as we negotiate over different things time and again,” he added.
The commander said he feels that the Artsakh war also had a sobering effect on the Armenians.
“The positive thing is that we now see process of strengthening defense in the border regions. Thanks to our young officers and soldiers, we were able to win the April war, yet this isn’t the victory we would need in case the scenario repeated itself. What we need is a different kind of victory, which is why we are now strengthening [the defense] along the Line of Contact,” he added.
