Serzh Sargsyan reflects on impact of April War on Karabakh peace process

Panorama, Armenia
Aug 8 2020

Third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan answered several questions of public interest about the 2016 April War in a series of video messages posted on the official Facebook page of his office on Friday.

The five short videos entitled "Let's talk openly: Serzh Sargsyan on the April War" are the ex-president's first attempt of direct communication with the public ever since 2018.

Part 5:

– How did the April War affect the ongoing negotiations over the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

– I am glad that we managed to make sure that the war did not bring any benefit to Azerbaijan.

You may remember Aliyev saying that he was being urged “behind closed doors” to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh. Of course, this is the most direct evidence of our diplomatic achievements.

– Was there any other improvement in the peace talks in the wake of the April War?

– The Vienna and St. Petersburg statements were among our diplomatic achievements indeed. Following the hostilities, the OSCE Minsk Group issued a statement to the effect that the 1994 tripartite ceasefire agreement remained in force.

– Do you think the Armenian side could avail itself of the mentioned diplomatic achievements?

– The Minsk Group co-chairing countries stated at the highest level that international mechanisms for border incident investigation had to be introduced in the conflict zone. This was a landmark achievement.

Now it remains to see how we could benefit from the results of the April War and why the “revolutionary authorities” neglected and failed to take advantage of the achievements we had during the Four-Day April War? 

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS