ArmInfo. Armen Ashotyan, Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), has accused Armenia's authorities of lying about Yerevan having allegedly recognized Azerbaijan's territorial integrity back in 1991.
Speaking live on Facebook and commenting on the statement by Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that on December 8, 1991, Yerevan and Baku signed the Agreement on cooperation between independent states actually recognized each other's territorial integrity, Mr Ashotyan stated the claim is false. And it can easily proved if one looks through the documents on the CIS formation.
"Nikol Pashinyan's priority goal is clean himself of the blood and sins of the Artsakh war, and he stops at nothing and keep on lying," stated Ashotyan.
"The thesis that Armenia signed the Agreement on cooperation between independent states thereby recognizing Azerbaijan's territorial integrity is false," he said. In this context, Mr Ashotyan stated that the agreement was signed by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and Armenia and Azerbaijan could not have signed it, as Minister Mirzoyan claims.
"In fact, official Yerevan signed the document in February 1992, and official Baku in September 1993. With reference to the point on territorial integrity, it does not emphasize that Armenia and Azerbaijan joined the CIS later by signing the so-called Alma Ata Declaration," Mr Ashotyan said.
Also, the Agreement contains the phrase "inalienable right to self-determination."
"My question: if Mr Mirzoyan erroneously refers to the agreement on CIS and speaks of territorial integrity, why does not he refer to the 'inalienable right to self-determination', which is part of the agreement? Moreover, beside the Agreement on CIS and Declaration on accession to the CIS, there is a third fundamental document, the CIS Charter, approved in 1993. And Article 3 of the Charter defines 'inalienable right of people to self-determination'," Mr Ashotyan said.
In this context, the RPA vice-chairman pointed out that the RA Supreme Council ratified the Agreement on cooperation with reservations.
In particularly, the RA Supreme Council, in the fourth paragraph of the preamble to the Agreement replaced the phrase "inalienable right to self-determination" with "inalienable right of people to self- determination." So the wording of the first paragraph of Article 5 was as follows: "The High Contracting Parties recognize and respect the right of nations to self-determination, each other's territorial integrity and inviolability of borders."
"Nikols are ignoring the principles of importance for Armenia and disseminating pro-Azerbaijani ideas. Active diplomatic processes related to Nagorno-Karabakh are under way and are being concealed from the people. We must stop it. Artsakh has always been and must remain Armenian," Mr Ashotyan said.
On March 15, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan stated that Yerevan applied to the OSCE MG co- chairmanship for negotiations over a peace agreement with Azerbaijan. Speaking of the five points of Azerbaijan's proposals, he stressed that any negotiations must be held without preconditions.
"As regards the proposals such, the two countries actually recognized each other's territorial integrity and agrees that they have no mutual territorial claims by signing the Agreement on cooperation between independent states on December 8, 1991," Mr Mirzoyan said.