Razmik - Dear “Miatsum” members…While I applaud your sentiments I really don't see what type of public pressure can be brought to bear on the Sargsyan regime. The President talks about the need for public debate of the Karabakh settlement issue but we all know that nothing of the kind will happen; just the reverse. He will declare that concessions are the only way forward and that those opposed to concessions have the luxury to be hardliners. How exactly will “Miatsum” attempt to change President Sargsyan's mind?

One more question if I may...No one really believes that the NKR government has a say in the matter, despite rhetoric to the contrary. It appears that the people of the NKR are less inclined to speak out on the issue than residents of the ROA. The inheritance of Soviet mentality and subservience is much stronger in Stepanakert than Yerevan. If the people of Karabakh don\'t make their voices heard why should the OSCE Minsk Group care at all if the Karabakh settlement entails returning the territories and placing the future of the NKR dependent on some vague referendum?

Alek Yenikomshyan - Whether Serzh Sargsyan will wish to hold a genuine public debate or not is not that important. We believe that thanks to its healthy instincts and judgment our people will take a firm stance on the issue before Sargsyan or someone else holds the pen to sign an agreement. Sargsyan cannot go against the people’s stance on this issue. Any argument to the effect that Armenia’s short-term and long-term security might improve as a result of the surrendering of the liberated territories cannot hold, and no sane person can claim with reason that Miatsum’s position in this respect is simply the expression of a hard-line luxury. 

As for the Armenian population of Karabakh, no one should have doubts about their position on this issue. Their relative silence until now does not mean at all that they acquiesce to the idea of surrendering the territories. Due to different factors, they believe that Serzh Sargsyan will never make that concession. The day the latter officially announces his readiness to take that step; the people of Karabakh will make their voice heard loud and clear.

John - The English told General Antranik to get out of Karabakh and promised that the issue would be resolved at the negotiations table based on western-style justice. Sadly, General Antranik believed in the sincerity and commitment of the English to their high-minded declarations. Are we to make the same mistake again?

Alek Yenikomshyan - We shouldn’t, and provided we stand firm and united, we won’t.

Garo -Please tell me that you are not naive to believe that when the superpowers are pulling the strings behind the scenes any historic and or legal documentation and arguments you can muster will actually make one iota of difference in the settlement process.

Karabakh, let alone the ROA, has done precious little to change the reality on the ground in Kashatagh in the past 14 years. Wouldn\'t you say that Armenia, from the start, always viewed the "liberated territories" as a bargaining chip?

In the eyes of the Minsk Group, 5,000 Armenians in Kashatagh and New Shahumyan do not present much of an obstacle to the 10,000 Azeris who will flood the region when returned.

As in countless cases in the past, the Armenian people have squandered an historic opportunity won by blood and sacrifice. And parties like the ARF still dream about returning to Moush and Sassoun. What a tragic joke.

All the money spent on genocide recognition efforts should have been directed towards resettlement in Karabakh. Our priorities as a nation are misplaced and the political will to actually move forward and create the basis for true "independent statehood" is no where to be found.

Alek Yenikomshyan - We agree with many of your evaluations but not with all of them, and certainly not with your defeatist pessimism.

According to your statement we are helpless when the superpowers are pulling the strings behind the scenes. If that was totally true, then it would have made no difference even if 50,000 or 100,000 Armenians had resettled in the liberated territories. It is true that the superpowers are pulling the strings behind the scenes and even on stage, but each is trying to push forward its own interests, against those of the others; and that’s a major leverage Armenians should use. 

Beyond that, there’s no way any Armenian president and government can surrender territories against the steadfast determination of a strong popular movement. This is not a brave rhetorical statement. Provided a firm Armenian stance during negotiations, only a war resulting in an Armenian defeat can take away those territories again from Armenians. 

As for the “historic and or legal documentation and arguments” you refer to, the approach of the “Miatsum Initiative” is the following. 

- The fact that the Armenian forces control the territories liberated during the war is a reality, and not a dream like in the case of other Armenian historical territories. Therefore, what is needed is to give a juridical expression to the reality on the ground. 

- Beyond the historic ones, the legal bases for substantiating Armenia’s rights over those territories do exist and therefore Armenia’s position during the negotiations should be based on this firm anchor, and not on anything else. 

- The diplomatic approach of the Armenian side since 1991 has been an extremely mild and defeatist one. We should definitively close that chapter of diplomacy and start a new one based on our rights stemming from international law. 

Artashes Boyajian - Dear Jirayr… when in 1993-94 most of the 7 regions were occupied by Armenian forces mainly because of panic and chaos in Azeri army (remember, how extremely rapidly we got that big territory, in a matter of days!) there was no talk in the Armenian society that those regions are "liberated Armenian territories"; not at all. Everybody was talking about them as a buffer zone and a bargaining chip. 

1) What was your personal position at that time?

2) Why do you think some part of the society in recent years started to call them "liberated" lands if the soldiers themselves who fought there did not think that they are liberating Armenian lands?

Jirayr Sefilyan – Dear Artashes… I’d first like to inform you that we carried out the operation to liberate the 7 regions at great expense. Your perception of the matter doesn’t correspond to reality at all. Up till 1993 we had suffered heavy losses and managed to hold on to a region at great effort. If we had retreated even just two steps the concept of Artsakh wouldn’t exist today. From September 1992 till March of 1993 Armenians proved to the world that they are a nation of fighters. This period was the most ferocious of the Artsakh War, when the enemy surpassed us ten-fold in terms of numbers and weaponry. It was due to our fighting spirit that we were able to halt the aggression of the opponent. Starting in the spring of 1993, and without the luxury of new troop arrivals, we went on the counter-offensive and this lasted till the end of autumn. Throughout this entire period not one day passed without some type of military action at the front. I relate all this to you for informational purposes and to remind all that during those six months of the counter-assault we suffered heavy human losses.

Regarding your comment that supposedly we weren’t “liberating” our native lands at the time, here too you are mistaken. Even if we consider for a moment that the political and military leaders of Artsakh at the time contemplated, in the back of their minds, to capture enemy lands based on the notion of utilizing them as a security zone and for military-strategic significance, I tell you with certainty that the field commanders and soldiers on the ground who actually liberated those territories carried out those orders with one supreme motive in mind – the return of our lost native lands. We wouldn’t have achieved any success at all if this conviction wasn’t held deep in the soul of our fighting forces. If any political or military leader, seated somewhere far behind the front lines, had suddenly dared to express the view that you today do here, rest assured that person’s life would have been snuffed out in a matter of hours.