Today we live in a society, which can not imagine life without expressing views on social media. Probably it does have certain advantages. Nevertheless, many participants of active discussions have already forgotten or do not even know about the developments, which unfolded in Armenia 5, 10 or 15 years ago.
To fill the gap Mediamax presents 5/10/15 project, which introduce developments in Armenia 5, 10 and 15 years ago.
• 15 YEARS AGO: DECEMBER 2-8, 2004
“A united front against Azerbaijan”
On 2 December 2004 Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said that “we are not going to concede the territories under our control without solving the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh's future political status”.
He made that remark in the interview to Armenian Public TV, commenting on the statements of Armenian United Movement (ANM) former ruling party that the Armenian authorities stalled deliberately and had no intention to resolve the Karabakh conflict.
According to Oskanyan, by “stalling” the opposition referred to the stage-by-stage settlement of the conflict, which ANM actually supported. “If by “stalling” they mean that we will never agree to Nagorno-Karabakh being de jure part of Azerbaijan, let it be so - the settlement of the conflict will be dragged out until it meets the national interests of the Armenian people,” he said.
Vartan Oskanyan in 2004Photo: REUTERS
The Foreign Minister said that Armenia was in a quite favorable position at that moment and “Azerbaijan's aggressive behavior in different international organizations is triggered by significant success we have achieved in the last 5-6 years”.
“Azerbaijan is panicking and our position is rather firm, so I urge all our compatriots not to harm ourselves but to form a united front against Azerbaijan,” he said.
“Trust towards Armenia equals zero”
Addressing the OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Sofia on December 6, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that four rounds of Prague meetings of the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, convened with the assistance of the Minsk Conference co-chairs, “brought about certain hopes.”
Mammadyarov said that “we would like to normalize our relations with Armenia and restore good neighborliness between our two countries, but it is impossible on the basis of the so-called “realities” resulting from armed aggression, and our neighbor has to get rid of the illusion that time ticks in their favor”.
Elmar Mammadyarov added that “our trust towards Armenia, which equals zero now, can emerge only if we see the Armenia’s sincere readiness to withdraw its troops from our occupied territories”.
The Foreign Minister also noted that “Azerbaijan could hardly agree with the claims of the top leadership of Armenia about ethnic incompatibility of Azerbaijanis and Armenians”.
Elmar Mammadyarov in 2004Photo: REUTERS
“We believe that Azerbaijanis and Armenians can and will live side by side in peace in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of my country as citizens of Azerbaijan. The major challenge we all face in the region is not ethnic hatred between the two peoples but incompatibility of the ideology of territorial claims towards neighbors, which belongs to the past, and a wish to be an integral part of Europe which is our clear vision of the future,” he said.
• 5 YEARS AGO: DECEMBER 2-8, 2014
The rule of law and “the rule of oil”
On 4 December 2014 Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated that “the international community cannot tolerate Azerbaijan’s attempts to replace the rule of law with the rule of oil”.
Addressing the OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel, Nalbandian said that “Azerbaijan consistently rejects all proposals, all versions of the basic principles for the settlement of -Karabakh conflict”.
OSCE Ministerial Council in Basel Photo: OSCE
He underlined that the more the international community urges the sides to prepare populations for peace and not war, “the more Azerbaijan enhances its warmongering and persecution of civil society activists supporting trust building measures”.
Nalbandian also pointed out that Azerbaijan’s military budget “has grown by almost 30 times over the decade since the day the interim president inherited the office from his father”.
Ara Tadevosyan
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