12:35, 14 March 2023
YEREVAN, MARCH 14, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded to the parliamentary factions of Nagorno Karabakh that demanded in a statement Yerevan “not to question” Nagorno Karabakh’s right to self-determination.
“We’ve said and continue saying that the issue of the rights and security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh is extremely important to us, this is one of our key goals. Our understanding is the following, it would be better for the people of Nagorno Karabakh to be the ones pursuing that issue, the primary mandate holder, the way it actually is. There are both objective and subjective reasons for this position. We believe that this conversation must take place between Baku and Stepanakert,” Pashinyan said.
PM Pashinyan added that the processes lead to a conclusion that it won’t be possible to advance in this issue without international mechanisms and guarantees.
“In Munich, the President of Azerbaijan himself said that there’s an agreement, an international agreement, that the rights and guarantees of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh must be discussed. He said this himself, and then meetings took place in the headquarters of the [Russian] peacekeeping forces in Nagorno Karabakh. After these meetings, suddenly it turned out that Azerbaijan is offering to discuss integration. We saw how their lexicon changed in just a month, and it’s not about the lexicon, it’s about the content, it’s about the agreement and Azerbaijan’s continual breaching of these agreements.”
Pashinyan added that it is up to the people and authorities of Nagorno Karabakh to determine the circle of their rights and security.
Speaking about Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s assistant Hikmet Hajiyev’s statement that creating an international mechanism for discussing the rights and security of Nagorno Karabakh people is unacceptable for Azerbaijan, the Armenian PM said that this is yet another agreement which now Azerbaijan is rejecting.