The most important topic and the one that is somewhat complicated is for the government to be able to present all the layers of the process of negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict when talking to the public — the issue on the rights of Azerbaijanis who lived in Nagorno-Karabakh has never been challenged during the whole course of negotiations. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated during his online press conference today.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast has never been viewed as merely and only an Armenian entity during the process of negotiations because during the negotiations it was recorded that Azerbaijanis also lived in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast and the protection of their rights was part of the negotiations. I have stated that when there were talks about a referendum for adjustment of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, there were also talks about the whole population of Nagorno-Karabakh. This means not only the Armenian population, but also the Azerbaijani population,” he said.
Pashinyan declared that today people are making statements that have nothing to do with the content of the negotiations as of 2018. “When I say that a catastrophe took place in the process of negotiations in 2016, this is the context that I’m referring to. The Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast has always been considered an Armenian and Azerbaijani entity, at least with respect to the population,” he said.
Asked what catastrophe took place in 2016, Pashinyan said the following: “A very important thing took place — in 2016, the Co-Chairs [of the OSCE Minsk Group] presented three packages of proposals in which, since 2011, there hadn’t been a phrase about Nagorno-Karabakh obtaining an interim status. Throughout the process of negotiations, the Armenian side’s position has been to do everything possible to make sure the conflict is ultimately resolved in the domain of the Minsk Group. In 2016, in essence, the parameters of the solution to the issue were moved to the UN Security Council.
The issue that will be solved is the issue on which part of the country Nagorno-Karabakh will be in until the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh is determined, even with an interim status. When this is in the United Nations Security Council, this is very predictable because back in 1993, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution stating that (a) “Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan” and (b) it recognizes the territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Azerbaijan. This is the catastrophe that took place in 2016. This is important in that if that status of Nagorno-Karabakh is recorded, it means that the adjustment of the final status will be in accordance with the Constitution of Azerbaijan,” the Prime Minister said, adding that, in essence, the issue on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh was returned to the domain of the UN Security Council in 2016.
Touching upon the allegations against him about giving lands, Pashinyan said they are groundless allegations.
