Civilized or Nationalistic? Decide Shakaryan and Shirinyan

Azerbaijan is currently unable to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, politologist Levon Shirinyan said at a press conference today, adding that Armenia should make its approach over the Karabakh issue stricter.

“We should change our viewpoint, we should get rid of our Armenianizm to some extent: it is not they [Azerbaijani] who should constantly threat us for us to explain to them, but rather Armenia should create concrete threats,” said Shirinyan, noting that even he considers the talk about returning the territories to Azerbaijan as unallowable.

Turkologist Artak Shakaryan, another participant of the press conference, expressed the opposite opinion, saying he considered the approach of making Armenia’s stance stricter and attacking Azerbaijan by its own initiative as wrong.

In his words Armenia has in the recent 20 years created a positive image in the eyes of the international community, showing that it is in favor of peaceful talks.

“A lot of political capital has been spent to create such a positive image which enables us stand out of both Turkey and Azerbaijan,” said Shakaryan, adding that “a little nationalistic accentuation will spoil our long-term strategic plan.”

Further Shakaryan said that instead of fighting against a wall, i.e. fighting with Azerbaijan and Turkey, Armenia had better increase its authority by cooperating with Iran and Georgia.