Ankah’s guest is academician Radik Martirosyan, the President of NAS RA 

- Mr. Martirosyan, on November the 10th Armenian Prime Minister unexpectedly signed a capitulation document, which caused great upheaval in our society. What is your estimation of this document?

- This document opens a new lingering page of struggle in our life, because it is hard to reconcile with the fact that we have ceded our historic territories. Among these territories are Hadrut, Shushi and my hometown of Mataghis, in which my childhood house is located and the school, which bears my name and which was built by my efforts. Therefore, this is also a personal tragedy for me.

There are many inconsistencies, disputed and unclear points in this document and maybe, during the implementation of it, some of these points might be mitigated. However, for this we need skillful leaders, diplomats and professionals, who will be able to insist and prevail on our viewpoints and that will enable us to limit the losses. 

Why did we get to this situation? Aliev, especially in the last few years, was declaring that if the conflict isn’t resolved through peaceful means they will resolve it by means of military use. Parallel to that Azerbaijan was strengthening and had such an aggressive ally as Turkey; we should have taken those facts into account. Our corresponding structures should have worked night and day in that direction. However, from the first day of the war it was unfortunately obvious that our enemy was armed with the latest and most modern weaponry such as drones and we had nothing equivalent to them. And all that was decisive in the war outcome. At least, if we were seeing that our strength was not enough, we should not have constantly stated that we will win; instead we should have objectively estimated the situation and have chosen the least of two evils so that our young generation, thousands of our young people would not have died. If the situation was correctly estimated then we would be able to maintain more. If our military-political leadership knew about the situation and made such a decision, then this can be considered treachery.  However, if they made it unwittingly then that is a result of bad governance which is still very bad. 

- It is still a fact that Armenia is in deep crisis. Because of this the country’s President, opposition and large part of society are demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister and Government. Instead they are proposing the formation of a transition government after which snap parliamentary elections will be held. What is your opinion of how we overcome the crises? 

- One thing is clear; with these results we already have lost this conflict. Our country’s corresponding structures have not been able to implement their objectives. The country’s governance system has not been effective, therefore it is necessary to change it with another one, which would be able to take the country out of this crisis and remedy it as much as possible. Besides this war we have registered negative results in another war as well, and that is Covid-19. We have one of the worst statistics in the world in this regard.

- Recently the YSU Scientific Council made a statement demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. Do you share your colleagues’ approach and is there any possibility of such debate in the Academy’s agenda? 

- We have already discussed this question in the Academy’s Presidium and will come out with the statement soon. The agenda included the current situation in the county and possible ways of coming out of it. We have condemned that the scientific field has been forsaken during these years and have been underfinanced, because of which we were not able to use modern technologies in the defense sector. Yes we believe that the entire government should resign!  

- Mr. Martirosyan, there is a big split in the society, which is mostly due to the working style adopted by current authorities. Do you see the way or any formula that will unite the society to overcome the serious problems we face? 

- That is one of the important points of our statement. We do not condone the situation in the country which is expressed by enmity and intolerance, which is constantly provoked by different sides. It can have devastating consequences for our country today. Therefore, today all the new, old, changing forces in general must think of one thing: to unite the forces in Armenia and in the Diaspora. By the way, I think that during this war we were not able to properly unite the Diaspora.

- But throughout the war we witnessed the enormous work being done in the Diaspora both in terms of propaganda and humanitarian assistance. Unfortunately, after November 9, that mood turned into widespread disappointment, and now many even take back the money transferred to the All-Armenian Fund, seeing some dubious processes around the fund.   

- Yes, it is very strange that a part of the money donated to the All-Armenian Fund went to the government to solve unknown problems and programs. The status of the foundation forbids it from allocating funds to defensive structures. If it was meant to fill the budget deficit, it is forbidden as well. By those actions we lost trust not only in the Diaspora, but also in Armenia. All the employees of our institution have invested in that fund from their small salaries. Everyone did.

- Today they are talking about the formation of an interim government, which will bring the country out of this crisis, will hold special parliamentary elections in a stable state. By what criteria do leaders need to solve the mentioned problems in terms of changing the Karabakh conflict process in our favor?

- The person who will continue the negotiations must have a great knowledge of history, international law, diplomacy in order to be able to improve our position in the negotiations. But at the same time, our country's economy must be rescued from this situation. Without a strong economy, we will never be able to solve our historical problems. It is necessary to know all those issues, to have experience. Inexperienced people should not rule the country. An inexperienced person cannot run even a small institution. Unfortunately, we have been convinced of that during these two and a half years.

- In our political field do you see any figure or figures that are able to take responsibility on their shoulders in the current situation, to solve those problems?

- There is a Russian proverb: "The holy place does not remain empty." There will definitely be those people. How can there not be people of that caliber in our society? They do exist, you just have to see them, and it should not depend on political preferences, but should come from objective realities.

Source: ankakh.am