During the time of [then-President] Robert Kocharyan, in November 1998, the country's authorities were negotiating on the basis of the so-called "Common State" plan, which presupposed the presence of Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] in Azerbaijan. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this speaking in the parliament after the report on the implementation of the 2021 state budget of Armenia—and on the negotiation process to resolve the Karabakh conflict.
Pashinyan again blamed the former Armenian authorities for all the failures; in particular, noting that in the aforesaid negotiations they were allegedly discussing the possibility of including Karabakh in Azerbaijan.
"But now, becoming an opposition, they accuse the [incumbent] authorities of treason. And the fact that Kocharyan, like his supporters—including [the ARF] Dashnaktsutyun [Party]—insist that Nagorno-Karabakh will never be part of Azerbaijan, smells of cunning—to put it mildly. Not only did they not rule out the possibility of Karabakh becoming part of Azerbaijan, but they also agreed with the key logic of the negotiation package, according to which Karabakh shall eventually become part of Azerbaijan. Moreover, they thus ignored the declaration of independence of Karabakh adopted on September 2, 1991, as well as the independence referendum held on December 10 of the same year," the Prime Minister said.
According to him, after the idea of a "Common State," the issue of exchanging territories appeared on the negotiating table.
"The essence of that plan was that Armenia gets Nagorno-Karabakh, and in return it gives Azerbaijan the Meghri region in Syunik Province [of Armenia]," Pashinyan assured.
From his point of view, Yerevan's agreement to discuss that option, in fact, indirectly meant that Armenia, perhaps at that time, recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.
