YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–Participants of a rally in support of Karabakh issued a joint statement–and delivered it to the embassies of the United States–France and Russia–Monday. The statement was addressed to participants of the OSCE Foreign Ministers meeting in Copenhagen.
The rally in support of Karabakh was organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation–the Council of the Armenian Intelligentsia and the Steering Committee of the Pan-Armenian Forum in Support of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Addressing participants of the rally–executive of the Scientific-Industrial & Civil Union Rafael Kazarian encouraged people to keep on hoping and continue struggle in the name of Karabakh’s independence. According to Kazarian–Armenian authorities are consistently doing their best to undermine the will of the population and its hope for a better future. He put into question the allegation by Levon Ter-Petrosyan that the independence of Karabakh would lead to war–while "the betrayal of Karabakh" would lead to peace. The SICU leader also said that it is impossible to draw a parallel between Karabakh and Bosnia.
Kazarian said that the president of Azerbaijan fears the renewal of war more than Levon Ter-Petrosyan does–as war will endanger the oil business in Azerbaijan. "We face only one major danger–Levon Ter-Petrosyan–who in the past years has been propagandizing disappointment and hopelessness–instead of mobilizing the population."
Kazarian said the surrender of Karabakh to Azerbaijan was nothing but a direct route to war–since immediately after that a deportation of Armenia’s will follow. He predicted that–in a year–they will do all that they had done in Nakhichevan for 50 years.