11:44, 24 March, 2022
YEREVAN, MARCH 24, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed what he described as the “radical opposition’s” criticism claiming that his administration has agreed to accept the principle of territorial integrity as the principle of normalization of relations.
Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting that this criticism is “more than strange.”
PM Pashinyan reminded a 1999 statement by then-President Robert Kocharyan, who said “If we speak about territorial integrity in general, we shouldn’t say that we oppose it. We also have territory, and we too consider that this territory requires adherence to such principle”. Pashinyan said Kocharyan made this statement after returning to Yerevan in 1999 from the OSCE Istanbul summit where he had voted in favor of the security charter in Europe, which defends territorial integrity.
“After him, Serzh Sargsyan also negotiated over the NK conflict settlement for many years, accepting the principle of territorial integrity, among others, as a fundamental principle for resolution. Therefore, speculations are inappropriate here. We believe that the Nagorno Karabakh has never been a territorial conflict and isn’t such now as well, it is an issue of rights and we will consistently defend all rights of the Armenians of Artsakh, also by not ignoring the rights of other nations, because, as Serzh Sargsyan once rightfully said in a latest interview – ‘we are not fascists’”, Pashinyan said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan earlier also said that the “Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a territorial issue, but a matter of rights.”