In order to establish peace, we need to solve two problems: implement all the provisions of the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, and all the provision of the trilateral statement of January 11, 2021 and bring the Nagorno-Karabakh issue to a certain milestone. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this at the sixth congress of the ‘Civil Contract’ party.
"We have said we rule out any corridor in the territory of the Republic of Armenia and will not provide any corridor to anyone. This is a principled and irrevocable position, based on the November 9 statement," the Prime Minister announced.
Regarding the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, he said, recently, there’ve been attempts lately to create an impression within the Armenian society that there is a Russian proposal which is positive for us, and that there is a Western proposal which is negative for us, and that the Armenian government is rejecting the Russian program and is accepting the Western one.
"This has absolutely nothing to do with reality," Pashinyan said, stressing that it is true that there is a Russian and Western perception.
"Armenia has agreed with the Russian perception and reached a principled agreement in January of 2021, and the key provision of these agreements is that Russia is the guarantor of security of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. This is a very important nuance. And we agreed on that scenario and plan.
That plan was presented to the Republic of Armenia in working regime in August 2022. Moreover, the agreement was as follows: it will be presented in August, and the Russian co-chair will return in September to receive our final position.
And at the very first meeting in September, we agreed to the implementation of that plan for a simple reason: it has been our agreement since January 2021. On Monday, during the upcoming meeting in Sochi I am ready to officially accept, if necessary to sign in the trilateral meeting format a document on reaching agreement based on those 15 points. Meaning, to accept that document as a basis for signing a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Pashinyan said, adding that he also said this yesterday at the CSTO closed session in the presence of the Russian President.
The Prime Minister expressed hope that the Russian Federation will support his recommendations in his post on Twitter. He considered it an important detail whether it will bring security and peace to Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia or not.
"Yes, there is also about Russian peacekeepers. Do we want Russian peacekeepers to continue their activities in Nagorno-Karabakh? Of course we want to. Yesterday the President of Nagorno-Karabakh made a statement. I officially say that I am ready to sign the document in Sochi and accept that the presence of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh will be unconditionally extended for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. I'm ready to sign that paper. I suggest that the President of the Russian Federation come up with that proposal. If necessary, I will come up with that proposal, but Russia must defend that proposal. And if we and Russia agree, we will be the majority," said the Prime Minister.
According to the Prime Minister, it is also important to address the issue of what the peacekeepers are doing in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The events in Parukh are not forgotten. There’s been an agreement on the highest level that this issue must be resolved. Meaning, the Azeri troops must withdraw from the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers. But this promise, commitment hasn’t been fulfilled so far,” Pashinyan said.
