At what stage is the negotiation process now, are we moving to a bilateral format; is the Nagorno-Karabakh issue closed; do we want something now or not? Addressing these issues, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan answered on the air of Public TV of Armenia:
“We want the sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence, statehood and democracy of the Republic of Armenia. Because in 2018, I said: I am the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, and the state interests of the Republic of Armenia must guide us. By the way, I would like to say the following that, for example, they say that there were forces who used the Nagorno-Karabakh issue to prevent statehood in Armenia. What does this mean, the interpretation of this is very important. It means something very simple. All of us, starting with me and ending with my predecessors, put 70-80 percent of the resources of the Republic of Armenia or not in a mathematical calculation, the lion's share was put on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Republic of Armenia did not have a foreign policy, it had a Nagorno-Karabakh policy, the Republic of Armenia did not have a security agenda, it had a Nagorno-Karabakh security agenda, etc., and so on. Do you understand what I mean? They did not tell us that statehood should not exist. A situation has arisen when most of the resources of our country should have been used for the creation of the state, we should have been focused on creating the Republic of Armenia, we have focused on creating the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. We have not taken into account the creation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic according to the 1993 resolutions of the UN Security Council, the Lisbon summit, I can list again, I'm just saying briefly, according to the results of the 1999 Istanbul summit, according to the Madrid principles, according to the negotiation packages in 2016, it is impossible. Do you understand, we have set a problem, we have spent our resources on solving a problem the solution of which, from the beginning, the entire international community has prevented?”
The Prime Minister mentioned that the policy of the Government is as follows that the rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh should be protected.
“Our policy is as follows: we say, if the people of Nagorno-Karabakh realistically do not have the right or opportunity or desire to return to Nagorno-Karabakh, our policy is for them to stay in the Republic of Armenia, live, create and act in the Republic of Armenia. Moreover, in order not to repeat the mistakes I listed in the previous period, now the field is very clear, it is open. What does Azerbaijan say? It says - do you want the return of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, rights, security and etc., there is no problem, let's also record the rights of Azerbaijanis who emigrated from the Republic of Armenia in the peace treaty.
Of course, we can respond it by saying the right of return of the Armenians of Nakhijevan, the right of return of the Armenians of Baku, the right of return of the Armenians of Sumgait, the right of return of the Armenians of Kirovabad, again the right of return of Armenians from many places. But here the topic is in the following, what logic are we following? Are we now gathering resources to go to a new conflict, or are we gathering resources to go to peace and use those resources to establish a state in Armenia? In my opinion, this is the right way. And what I could not say in 2018, 2019, 2020, even 2021, I say now,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister, there is some mobility in the negotiation process.
“The negotiation process, by the way, is related to the issue of platforms as well. The negotiation process should have some predictability. And now yes, there should be negotiations and it is very important that these negotiations be based on the principles already agreed upon. On the three principles agreed upon at the Brussels platform. We imagine the peace process like that and the negotiation process, yes, continues, including online mode, because you know, we have given Azerbaijan our proposals, now we are waiting for their response. By the way, let me say that they accused us that we don't give two months. We need to address that, what was the reason for it, because our proposals were ready, and in the near future constant meetings were planned," he said, noting that the situation is developing, and also a certain understanding should be formed, principles, etc.
According to Pashinyan, the negotiation package was delayed because Azerbaijan rejected four meetings in a row, when the meetings were part of the process of transferring the negotiation package.
“But even now, I consider that the negotiations continue on the text of the peace treaty because if it is not possible to discuss face-to-face now, that work is also a negotiation, although there are contacts at the working level, the contacts we talked about, you know, there may also be new contacts,” he said.
