If it continues like this in the Karabakh issue, we will face most serious problems; we are losing certain opportunities every day. The second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, stated this during his press conference Thursday.
According to him, if the Armenian authorities put such "bombs" or "hand grenades" under the negotiation process every time, the Armenian side will not achieve anything, but will only record the actual situation.
He noted that Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) should play a very major role today, also in its relations with Armenia, demanding from and forcing the authorities of Armenia to simply explain what they are doing and where they are taking them.
"My impression is that all the parties—it is a sensitive topic, it is a difficult topic—, and they do not want to discuss this issue. Armenia avoids talking about that issue. My impression is such that the Karabakh authorities do not want to aggravate this issue so as not to spoil relations [with Armenia], as they depend on funding for construction for refugees and a number of other circumstances," Kocharyan added.
The second president of Armenia emphasized that Karabakh should say what prospects it wants to see in the next 5-10 years.
"Now they are trying to find models there to express their concern. The law on the [Azerbaijani-]occupied territories [of Artsakh] is a good sign, and greater determination and courage need to be shown in that regard in order to set tasks before Armenia. The issue is not personal relations; this is a matter of the future. Does anyone know who will be [in power] in three years when the term of the mandate of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh ends? Armenia’s authorities do not know about that and do not want to discuss it. They avoid discussing that issue," he explained.
Robert Kocharyan considers the legal bases for the formation of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic invulnerable.
"Karabakh just had to be kept de facto, kept with the army, not fought a war, not lost the war, and Karabakh had to be strengthened economically. The de facto recognition of Karabakh was a matter of time. Such conflicts are not resolved quickly. If we had not retreated for at least ten days—whereas we were retreating every day—the war [in the fall of 2020] would have stopped, and an opportunity for the recognition process would have been created," the second president of Armenia concluded.
