16:47,

YEREVAN, APRIL 22, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the discussions that were prompted by his speech where he said that the international community is calling on Armenia to lower the bar in the issue of the Nagorno Karabakh status.

Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, Pashinyan said the reactions to his statement are perplexing.

“The proposals presented by the OSCE Minsk Group in 2016 on the Nagorno Karabakh resolution are none other than a document on lowering the bar because the key meaning of that document was the indefinite delay of the status issue of Nagorno Karabakh. By saying indefinite it was meant decades, if not longer. In the 2016 proposals, the proposal on delegating the Nagorno Karabakh status issue to international bodies was also a similar lowering of the bar, moreover the kind of bodies that had already previously expressed a position around the issue within the framework of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. Such call to lower the bar was also the OSCE 1996 Lisbon summit and the 1999 idea of a ‘common state’. The 2001 Key West process was such a call to lower the bar, so were the 2007 Madrid Principles, upon which the 2016 January, July and August proposals were based. Various documents adopted by various international bodies since the 1990s contained direct or indirect calls for lowering the bar. And the fact that the meaning of these facts were carefully hidden from our public doesn’t mean that they didn’t exist,” Pashinyan said.

“In the short-term, mid-term and long-term our tactics is the following: to ensure the kind of situation or solution that Artsakhis live in Artsakh, and like I’ve said in my April 14 speech to parliament, for them to live in a way that they feel themselves Karabakhi, Artsakhi and Armenian. Any resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh issue or any development established in Nagorno Karabakh that not only would not ensure these conditions but also won’t guarantee it is unacceptable for us and will never be acceptable for us,” Pashinyan said. He said that this is the key part of the issue, everything else are "toasts".

“And the forces that want the Armenian government to adopt toasts that would result in a new war being unleashed and the exodus of Armenians of Artsakh, these forces are the ones who surrendered and are surrendering not only Artsakh but also the Republic of Armenia. But we can also be sure that we will not allow this, the people of Armenia will not allow it. We will also not allow various instigating statements that seek to deviate us from the peace agenda. We will not allow it because we are convinced that the peace agenda would ensure the future of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh,” Pashinyan said.