Vazgen Manukyan, the Homeland Salvation Movement’s prime ministerial nominee to head a proposed transitional government in Armenia, issued the following statement today.

After the events of Sumgait in 1988, when a terrible massacre took place against the Armenian population, we witnessed that neither the state nor the army (then the USSR army) are the defenders of the physical existence and security of our people. Self-defense detachments began to form rapidly, which, under the huge restrictions of the USSR, were able to arm themselves and assume the protection of the Armenian population.

We achieved much after this. We had an independent state, we created an efficient army, we registered brilliant victories. But now, we are in the same situation.

In fact, our independent state today, under the leadership of the government, army, law enforcement agencies, does not protect the security of our country and people, our territories, our property and interests.

Instead, we are constantly hearing false, ignorant explanations from the government, which, by threatening to resume the war, is again trying to mislead our people into extending its futile rule.

When the state fails to ensure the protection of the security and interests of its citizens, it is the natural right of the people to undertake that protection themselves.

We will change these weak authorities who are destroying our state. The military force that has been formed for decades will again be able to guarantee our security. But it takes time, during which we are constantly experiencing new losses, the borders of our country are being squeezed, our border settlements and inhabitants remain unprotected.

In these conditions, I urge our young people, the population of the border areas, our veterans who went through harsh wars, to again form defense detachments, to negotiate and cooperate with the peacekeeping forces in the framework of the interpretation and implementation of the November 9 trilateral declaration document (something Armenian state structures fail to do), and stand up for the borders of our country and for the security of our people.