Trend Agency had an interview with Vahan Martirosyan, head of the Armenian Intra-national Liberation Movement, who previously asked for a political asylum in Azerbaijan.
– A tragic incident happened to your mother on October 7 in Armenia. Do you think that it was a planned act of revenge by the Armenian authorities?
– Of course, I think so. Any person, more or less familiar with the situation in Armenia, would think so. The authorities, law enforcement agencies, and the national security service resort to such methods to fight people like me, who are out of control and oppose [Armenian President Serzh] Sargsyan’s regime.
I see this as a message to me and as a warning. They treat people like vile jackals – this is peculiar to them. They know well that during a press conference held September 18 and in an interview, I, in principle, disclosed 10 percent of the information I have, and spoke about all issues superficially.
They have always acted like this. They hit by car a 70-year-old woman, and she suffered a compound fracture, so that I would understand, say nothing, do not disclose and do not spread the information that I have.
I have been for three to four years engaged in public activity, I was a leader of a movement, and they are well aware of this. I even know who they are –it is the chief of the presidential staff, Vigen Sargsyan, who knows me well, several MPs from the Republican Party, with whom I spoke on various issues and processes.
They are well aware of what information I have, and that was a message to me. They grew nervous first. I paused, after all. Over 10 days, I did nothing, and I knew there was something going to happen. However, I did not expect that they would come to such a degree of meanness.
Prior to that, they had my mother-in-law fired from her job under the pretext of her retirement, despite that the age of 52 is not considered a retirement age. According to the law, 63 is the retirement age for women [in Armenia]. Aside from that, pressure was put on the members of my movement.
I have also recently learned that my mother-in-law warned her husband in Odessa by SMS telling him to take their son, my wife’s brother, because the special services of Armenia are spying on him and something will inevitably happen to him. He is 28 years old.
He was working in a church, where he too was fired. Ultimately, I hope this is the last incident. My mother was hit [by a car] in the street, moreover as the law enforcement agencies say, the incident took place in the early morning at 08:50, at the crossroads.
At such a time, the probability of my mother’s being in that street is ruled out. Moreover, it was 200 meters away from our house, in a narrow street where it is impossible to hit a pedestrian. Besides, my mother is a very cautious person. She is 68 years old. She has never had an accident. All this is a logical continuation of the way the Armenian authorities and law enforcement agencies act.
Even during the press conference in Baku on September 18, I warned of the possibility of such incidents. I warned the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN. This is the cynicism of the authorities, and they do not care that there are international organizations. For them the most important thing is to save their own skin, and they are ready to meanly hit an old woman by car. Even now, I expect anything from them, they can do anything.
– What was the reason behind your action? Why did you decide to run exactly to Azerbaijan? How do you and your family feel in Azerbaijan? What are the plans for future?
– I and my family members feel excellent in Azerbaijan. Lovely people, and lovely city [Baku], the attitude towards us is normal, I even made friends here.
Why did I come to Azerbaijan? Because a persecution started against me, a criminal case was launched. This began immediately after I had a small conflict with a person close to Serzh Sargsyan, the MP Mher Sedrakyan. As I did not make peace with him, they in usual way started to bring false criminal cases against me, there were attempts to arrest me.
Firstly, I went to Georgia. I understood well that with the “luggage” of social and political activity that I have, I could go to any European country and ask for political asylum there. However, I myself would have regarded it as an escape, since no European country would be interested to present the whole truth about Sargsyan’s criminal regime to the world, the Armenian diaspora and Europe. At most, there would have been one or two articles in a newspaper, and that is all.
At the same time, I knew very well that no one is interested in presenting the truth about this to the world to such extent as the Azerbaijani media are.
Armenian diaspora, too, has to some extent got disappointed in the Sargsyan regime.
Knowing all the truth about the criminal acts, I can call Sargsyan’s group nothing other than a gang. It is headed by him [Sargsyan], his relatives, close people and persons who were and who are still in power.
– What, in your opinion, will Armenia’s political system look like after the amendments to the country’s constitution? Are there any preconditions that civil society will finally protest the oligarchic corrupt power in Armenia?
– The amendments to Armenia’s constitution are aimed at prolonging the criminal regime of Sargsyan. He is regenerating himself. Sargsyan can’t nominate this candidacy for the third [presidential] term and by making amendments to the constitution, he tries to create a different system of governance in Armenia. He will easily become a speaker and if a parliamentary system of government created, he will de facto stay in power.
Unfortunately, I don’t see prerequisites for that the civil society will finally protest the oligarchic and corrupt authorities of Armenia, since we had three regime changes in 25 years: Petrosyan, Kocharyan and Sargsyan regimes. They have perfected their “pocket” opposition skills to such a level that even if the people want changes, pseudo leaders who are de jure leaders, but de facto are fed by the Sargsyan regime emerge immediately. We call it the Vatican Foundation. For example, Sargsyan’s son-in-law Mikael Minasyan [ambassador in Vatican] supervises both the press and opposition in Armenia.
– How in your opinion should the Karabakh problem be resolved so that ultimately, those living on these lands could benefit from this? Can Armenia provide them with a decent life taking into account its weak economic situation?
– The conflict should be resolved only through the peaceful means. The international organizations, the OSCE and its Minsk Group should work honestly, in accordance with the completely different scheme. Over these years, both Armenia’s former president Robert Kocharyan and the current president Serzh Sargsyan have perfected their skills “to pull the wool over the eyes” of these organizations. In other words, these lands haven’t prospered and remain abandoned for 27 years already. Although tens, hundreds, if not billions of dollars have been sent by the diaspora and European countries namely for the development of Nagorno-Karabakh over these years, the people suffer from hunger there. If at least 70 percent of these funds were used for this purpose, there would have been a small Monte Carlo. However, these funds went into the pockets of Kocharyan’s and now the Sargsyan’s team.
There should have been some progress in 27 years, while regression is observed there. These are large territories, but only 40,000-45,000 people live there and 90 percent of them are elderly, since the young people have long ago moved to Russia or to Yerevan to earn some money.
There is no work and nothing is being built there. The Center of Stepanakert (Khankendi) was built during the first years of Kocharyan’s office just to show the tourists, inspectors and supervisors of various funds that some work is done. There is only imitation of development and it is going on in front of everyone. Susha is a dead city and there is no population. Everything there is like in the films by Tarkovsky, where there is a dead city, as if epidemic has occurred.
– Does Armenia need war for Karabakh today? Are the Armenian people ready for war for foreign lands?
-Armenian people are not ready for the war and no one wants it. The country’s army is on decline. As a result of the huge corruption that dominated and still dominates in the Defense Ministry, the army, the armed forces and the Defense Ministry are on such a decline that now there is a huge corruption pyramid where the Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan doesn’t solve anything.
It is similar to Facebook accounts. There are real accounts and fake accounts. He [Seyran Ohanyan] is a fake defense minister, while the real one is the Chief of the General Staff Yuri Khachaturov.
He does everything to destroy the Defense Ministry and just launders the money from each contract. If a referendum is held in Armenia today and if the people are not afraid to tell the truth, 90 percent of Armenians, especially those in Yerevan will vote for – don’t want to say this word – getting rid of Karabakh and they have been thinking about this for a long time. [Earlier, Martirosyan said that if a similar referendum held in Karabakh itself, and voters wouldn’t be under pressure, they would fully agree to stay as a part of Azerbaijan].
Because their children have died there throughout several years. There are a lot of innocent victims, harassment, many cases of suicide among soldiers, shootings at officers or at each other.
-What is the reason of increasingly deteriorating economic situation in Armenia?
– The decline in the economy is due to the fact that the Sargsyan team has petty swindler psychology. They sell everything. They have even sold the Foreign Ministry building in the center of Yerevan, Armenia’s most famous sports and concert complex owned by the Defense Ministry. This is a petty swindler psychology.
Incredible cases of theft take place, the treasury is empty, especially after the gamble, when a billion dollars was spent on the event dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the "genocide." That’s to say, in order to hold this event, de facto, they committed new “genocide”. It is said that bribes were taken even in Vatican. The nonsense is that we even do not have professionals in any sphere, the people imitate work, create fiction.
If there was at least one rational person working on organizing these events, the porn star Kim Kardashian wouldn’t be brought [to Armenia] and wouldn’t become the face of the “genocide”. That was a shame. When she was brought and was received at the government level, was received by the prime minister, there was such agiotage on the streets that I thought Russian President Vladimir Putin has come.
Hundreds of millions were taken from the treasury and spent on the artists, for some concerts and bribes. One famous Moscow actor said that he will keep the symbol of the “genocide” – the forget-me-not flower – in his coat till late 2015, because Armenians gave him as much money as he doesn’t even earn for three or four films. This is a mid-level actor. There were Montserrat Caballe, Kim Kardashian, System of a down [rock band]. Insanity reached such a point that I went to the supermarket and saw there socks with a symbol of the "genocide."
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