All the leaders of Armenia are united by one thing: they would never have come to an agreement with our enemy. This is something that Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan did in Dushanbe, said Mikael Minasyan, the former Ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican.
“It began in Dushanbe, where Nikol Pashinyan and his cultural and constructive comrade Aliyev began to negotiate, and this shameful fact provided Nikol Pashinyan with the opportunity to seize power in Armenia or bring this process to completion, and Ilham Aliyev provided such a strategic and a tactical advantage, the price for which we have already paid, and I hope we will not pay for long, but I can say with confidence that it will be very, very difficult. The process of digesting all this will begin from the day when Nikol Pashinyan will be removed from power in Armenia,” he said.
“What is the greatest fear of Nikol Pashinyan? He was terrified of war or aggravation at the border. Therefore, when he first met Aliyev in Dushanbe and had the opportunity to talk face to face, and there were problems in the Nakhichevan direction, Nikol Pashinyan begged for peace at the expense of the people of Armenia and at the expense of Armenia. He begged for time to strengthen his power, to hold elections.”
“Why does Aliyev need this time and why did he provide this opportunity? Well, after the April war, the diplomacy of Armenia achieved something very important – something that all the Armenian authorities were seeking, something without which Armenia was constantly under the threat of war. All Armenian authorities voiced the question that we are obliged to have an observation mission and technical means to monitor all incidents on the contact line and to get an opportunity to understand who shoots first,” he said. “This means that the largest card is taken from Azerbaijan because Armenia never starts shooting.”
“After the April war in Vienna, a document was signed at the level of the co-chairing countries, as well as the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to which, funds should immediately be introduced that will lead to an increase in the international observing mission and the introduction of technical equipment based on this along with the line contact.”
“Then it was confirmed in St. Petersburg, already in the presence of the Russian President. If this were done, we would practically zero out the number of incidents and there would be practically no threat of war, and, most importantly, there would be no casualties,” however, according to Minasyan, Nikol Pashinyan conceded in this asking for a temporary cease-fire.
According to him, after that Pashinyan said that he was starting a new revolutionary process on the Karabakh issue.
As Minasyan noted, Ilham Aliyev tried to advance in the direction of Nakhichevan every spring and did the same in April 2018, and the Armenian Armed Forces secured positions by fire, but in May the situation changed and the political leadership did not give specific orders to intensify fire.
“This is precisely what provided the Azerbaijanis with the opportunity in places to reduce the 5-kilometer distance to 750-1500 meters, approaching the Armenian villages, because they wanted to seize this section, which was under the control of the Armenian Armed Forces, to keep Armenian villages under fire, and, most importantly, the strategic road from Yerevan to Goris.”