Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Stepanakert

Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the ceasefire agreement signed between the Defense Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Commander of the Nagorno Karabakh Army.

The document has no time limitation and had been in place for 22 years with relative success. However, in April this year Azerbaijan unleashed large-scale military actions against Karabakh, but the aggression was rebuffed and on April 5 the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan reached a verbal agreement on cessation of hostilities. Afterwards, Azerbaijan tried to refuse from the trilateral agreements signed in 1994-1995, but the attempts were void.

Masis Mailyan, Head of the NKR Public Council on Foreign Policy and Security Affairs, participated in the signing of the 1994 agreement in the capacity of the Adviser to the NKR Army Commander on political Issues. He says that “after the April war the parties are farther from a political deal than they were in 1994.”

According to him, the “no war, no peace” situation has changed today. Azerbaijan officially declares it withdraws from the ceasefire agreement, which means that the issue of defense of Armenia and Artsakh becomes urgent. “We need guarantees of non-resumption of war, and the NKR Defense Army is the main guarantee. As for the diplomatic field, the Armenian sides should strive to ensure NKR’s return to the negotiating table and change the logic of the talks,” Masis Mailyan said.

Expert Hrach Arzumanyan also agrees that the Armenian side should assume a different stance in the negotiations, but before returning to the negotiating table we should reach the condemnation of Azeri aggression.

“Azerbaijan keeps shooting, which comes to prove that Azerbaijan has not refused from the idea of solving the issue through force, while every aggression should be condemned,” the expert said. “The international law provides for this opportunity,” he said.