Category: 2022

ArmInfo.The international community is promising unanimity on Armenia and Artsakh if Armenia’s authorities agree to lower status for Artsakh. Otherwise, the  international community says Armenia should not hope for them, Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated in Parliament on Wednesday.  

“Robert Kocharyan was not at all exaggerating while stating that  Armenia too has territorial integrity issues. It was difficult for us  to convince ourselves that after 30 years of hardships we had to  surrender the fruits of the victory in exchange to nothing. Accepting  that was tantamount to admitting that we had erected a facade,  whereas we had totally failed to construct state institutions. Even  as an opposition member I could not accept that much less so read out  this verdict while looking straight into people’s eyes. But I am  saying to discuss the future not the past. In fact, we have a similar  situation now, and I cannot but say it,” the premier said. 

“The international community is telling us straightforwardly now:  being the world’s only country refusing to recognize Turkey’s ally  Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is a great threat not only to  Artsakh, but also to Armenia. The international community is telling  us again now: request a lower status for Nagorno- Karabakh’s status,  and you will enjoy international unanimity on Armenia and Artsakh.  Otherwise, we request you not to hope for us not because we are  unwilling to help, but because we are unable to,” Mr Pashinyan said.  

These are social and psychological motives making Armenia’s  authorities to consistently state there is no alternative to the  peace agenda despite all the difficulties, he said. 

ArmInfo.Signing a peace agreement with Azerbaijan as soon as possible is among the Armenian government’s plans, Armenia’s Premier Nikol Pashinyan stated in  Parliament on Wednesday.  

Speaking of the agreements reached following the trilateral meeting  in Brussels, he said: “I agreed to preparation of a peace agreement  by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers.” Issues of  schedule and format of work have to be discussed. 

Yerevan has no illusions about it as Azerbaijan could attempt to  bring to the peace talks to stalemate as soon as possible to justify  its new acts of aggression against Armenia and Artsakh.  “We have  similar expectation about border delimitation as we do not rule out  Azerbaijan will make use of the process to formulate territorial  claims to Armenia while de jure stating it has no territorial  claims,” he said. 

Aware of and calculating all the risks, Armenia’s authorities have  arrived at the conclusion that no progress only entails higher risks. 

“This is the reason why we agreed on delimitation in Brussels to set  us an Armenian-Azerbaijani commission on birder delimitation and  security by the end of April and start working,” Mr Pashinyan said.   The Armenian side’s strategy is clarifying Azerbaijan’s official  position on the border and specifying Armenia’s position, “being  legitimate to the highest extent possible, that is, using only facts  and arguments de jure, getting this legitimacy internationally  recognized and reaching an agreement on the Armenian and Azerbaijani  borders. It means being based on de jure facts that are of importance  for delimitation, rather than on wishes or talks,” Mr Pashinyan said. 

He reported that the bilateral commission members will be finally  named before April 30.   

ArmInfo.Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan considers the CSTO’s reaction to the situation in the Sotk-Khoznavar section on the border with Azerbaijan as a failure for the Organization.

“What happened at the Sotk-Khoznavar section is, of course, a failure  of the Armed Forces and the government. But the way the CSTO reacted  to what happened, I think, was also a failure for the Organization,”  he said on April 13 in parliament.

Pashinyan noted that, despite existing procedures, the CSTO has not  yet made a decision to monitor the problem area, justifying the  long-standing fears of the Armenian public that this Organization,  which is of paramount importance for the security system of Armenia,  will do nothing at the right time, remaining in observer status. “The  fact is that the CSTO still does not consider this situation in any  way, even as an observer,” he stressed.

The Azerbaijani Armed Forces continue to be in the Sotk-Khoznavar  section, posing a real threat to the security of Armenia, he noted.  “But I also want to state that the territory of 45 square kilometers  that was occupied as a result of these events, unfortunately, is not  the only one in the Republic of Armenia. Since the beginning of the  90s, about 70 square kilometers of the territory have been in this  status, and as I already said, our policy on this issue is to  consider the solution of it in the context of the activities of the  commission on delimitation and demarcation,” Nikol Pashinyan said. 

ArmInfo. RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan assures that everything has already been said about the negotiation process on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict.  Pashinyan stated this on April 13 in parliament, answering  a question from Sona Ghazaryan, MP of the Civil Contract faction.

The MP asked to what extent it is possible to declassify the  negotiation process. She also offered to publish the correspondence  of the participants in the process, noting that “people deserve to  know about the realities from the primary source hidden for years.”

According to Pshinyan, in fact, there are no secrets left, since  everything has been said. “It remains to combine what has been said,  there are a couple of inaccuracies, to find out with documents which  circumstance is correct,” Pashinyan said.

Referring to the MP’s proposal to publish the correspondence and  conversations, the prime minister assured that there was no “rich  material” on this score, since not everything was recorded. “The  30-year- old negotiation process fits into one folder. But, of  course, there are many important records of conversations. But the  problem is that we, as a government, cannot do this,” Pashinyan said,  noting that he does not consider it right to publish the negotiations  with officials from different countries.

Pashinyan recalled that at one time his opponents promised to publish  facts and documents. “They are not constrained by government ‘bans’,  let them publish them. I am not against them publishing what they are  talking about. I am convinced that what they publish will prove  exactly what we have been talking about all this time,” he said. 

MP Ghazaryan recalled the so-called “Meghri exchange option”. In  response, Pashinyan noted that this document became public in 2007,  it can even be found on the Internet. “In fact, the problem is not in  the content of the negotiations, because everything is published, but  in the unification and understanding of the internal relations  between the lines of the content of the negotiations. In fact, there  are no more secrets, we talked about everything, at least I talked  about everything said,” the prime minister said.