Oppositionist about Artsakh’s surrender to Azerbaijan within framework of possible peace treaty

NEWS.am
Armenia – Sept 5 2022

There are two scenarios regarding the so-called peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Tigran Abrahamyan told NEWS.am.

One of them, according to him, envisages a settlement of the Artsakh issue, which will include only clauses on the rights and freedoms of Armenians.  "The Armenian authorities, in fact, gave an opportunity to Azerbaijan to take a convenient position and say that the Armenians of Artsakh are the same citizens of Azerbaijan as other citizens living in other territories of Azerbaijan," the deputy said.

He believes there is a second scenario: if Artsakh is somehow enshrined in a document, Azerbaijan's control over Artsakh will be legally secured. "The principle of the right to self-determination is completely absent from the negotiation process. Neither Armenian nor Azerbaijani proposals say anything about it," Abrahamyan added.

The deputy is sure that the main idea of the so-called peace treaty is to consolidate Artsakh within Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, given that the current Armenian authorities have already given up on Artsakh. They gave their consent to five proposals from Baku, which in no way reflect Armenian interests and do not affect the realization of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination.

"In today's circumstances, Armenia should at least enshrine the thesis that the Artsakh issue has not been resolved. The absence of this clause would mean the settlement of the issue within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

It would be important for us to fix also the point that the deployment of Russian peacekeepers is mechanically prolonged until the conflict is solved. But that's not on the agenda of the Armenian authorities either," Abramyan stressed.