The issue of de-occupation of the territory of the NKAO should be made a negotiating issue: Nikol Pashinyan

14.04.2021

During a question-and-answer session with the government in the National Assembly, Nikol Pashinyan stated that Azerbaijan refused to discuss the status of Nagorno-Karabakh as an agenda item during the war and before that.

“Analyzing the situation, after consulting with the President of Artsakh and the General Staff of the Armed Forces, I decided that we should reach a ceasefire through certain, and even difficult, concessions. In this regard, I convened a meeting of the Security Council, which was attended by the representatives of parliamentary factions. The meeting was attended by the President of the RA and the Supreme Patriarch. On the same day, I invited the representatives of the extra-parliamentary opposition and once again informed them about the current events,” Pashinyan said.

The PM noted that after that, according to the agreement, he called the President of the Russian Federation to say that Armenia wants a ceasefire on the condition of returning the territories at a format of 5+2.

“A condition, which was previously put forward by the negotiators in various formats. We have reached a common understanding with the President of the Russian Federation. We have stated with the President of the Russian Federation that we have a common way of overcoming the situation. You know that there was a question of the return of refugees, there was a question of the return of Azerbaijani migrants to Nagorno-Karabakh, I said that we would have no objections in principle if the issue was somehow linked to the process of clarifying the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. The President of the Russian Federation held a telephone conversation with the President of Azerbaijan, as a result of which it became clear that the Azerbaijani side categorically does not accept our demand for deoccupation of the Hadrut district. Secondly, he requires that the issue of the return of migrants, including to Shushi, should not be associated with the clarification of the status. There was also a hint that there should be no return of territories according to the 5+2 format, but the return of 7 territories,” the Prime Minister noted.

Nikol Pashinyan added that this was said as a hint in case Armenia agrees to the conditions proposed before this point.

“Azerbaijan, both before and during the war, refused to discuss the issue of the status of Nagorno Karabakh as an issue on the agenda,” Pashinyan said.

The RA Prime Minister stressed that the issue of deoccupation of the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region should be raised as a political, negotiating issue. 

“I want to draw the attention of all of us to the fact that we must talk about the future. The most important part of this conversation about the future is the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. I want to emphasize that we, as a political issue, should raise the issue of deoccupation of the territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh autonomous region. Once again, we should formulate this not as a military issue but as a political issue of negotiations,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister said that it is necessary to consistently continue the implementation of the resolution “shutdown for salvation” for Nagorno Karabakh. “You saw what happened in Azerbaijan yesterday or the day before yesterday, it is the biggest manifestation of Armenian hatred. I think we should draw everyone’s attention from all platforms, that a museum of war suffering and victims may be opened in a country, which is the biggest manifestation of hatred. And this is the biggest basis for us to show the international community the applicability of the principle of “shutdown for salvation” for Nagorno-Karabakh, which should be the core of our further negotiation process,” Pashinyan said.