Parliament-Government Q&A session in the National Assembly 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan answered the questions of MPs at the National Assembly today.

Nikol Pashinyan once again presented what mirror withdrawal is.

In order to stabilize the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the Armenian side proposed a mirror withdrawal of troops, Pashinyan said, answering the questions of Vahagn Aleksanyan, member of the ‘Civil Contract’ faction, about what 'mirror withdrawal' means.

"We have made a proposal, and our idea is that the armed forces must mirror withdraw. This means that they must be withdrawn at an equal distance from the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, after which the border guard must be handed over to a limited number of border guards, and as a result, international monitoring must take place in order to implement the agreements reached," Pashinyan said.

Is there a state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan? According to Pashinyan, the answer to this question is definitely positive, as there was a border yet in the Soviet times, which was delimited.

"With the 1991 agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which was ratified by the parliaments of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, those borders were recognized. Therefore, we think that these agreements should be implemented by this logic," Pashinyan said.

Nikol Pashinyan stressed that the Armenian side is ready to listen to other proposals as well.

When asked to inform whether agreements about solving the issue of captives and missing persons were reached during the recent remote meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders at the mediation of the French President Emmanuel Macron and President of the European Council Charles Michel, the Armenian PM said that one of the issues that was discussed at that meeting related to the solution of the humanitarian problems. He reminded that after that meeting 8 Armenian captives returned to Armenia. Pashinyan praised the efforts of Emmanuel Macron and Charles Michel in this process.

"We also talked about the fates of persons missing after the first war and the 44-day war. Azerbaijan constantly says that they have nearly 4000 missing persons after the first Karabakh war. I want to state that the Armenian side also has missing persons, 777 according to official data. An attempt is made to present that the Armenian side has not taken concrete actions also in this matter. I want to inform that over the past year bodies of 108 persons missing after the first war have been handed to the Azerbaijani side. We are going to transfer 2 more bodies in coming days”, the Armenian PM said, adding that Armenia hasn’t published that it has returned so many bodies because it believes that it’s a humanitarian issue.

Nikol Pashinyan presented data on the victims and missing persons during the 44-day war.

"According to today's adjusted data, we have 3812 victims, including 3736 servicemen, 76 civilians," Pashinyan said.

Armenia's Prime Minister also informed that the whereabouts of 217 people remain unknown, 196 of them are servicemen, 21 are civilians.

Pashinyan also touched upon the signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan.

“The signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, the normalization of relations with Turkey, the recording with the relevant document were the goals of our government, all governments, because the goal of the Karabakh peace process was to sign a peace treaty, and it is recorded in all documents,” he said.

“Are we interested in signing a peace agreement with Azerbaijan? Yes. Are we ready to negotiate a peace treaty? Yes. In what format should the negotiation take place? We have emphasized our ideas about that several times, therefore the goal of the negotiations of Armenia and the Government and all previous governments was to sign a peace agreement,” said Nikol Pashinyan.

"There is a state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as there was a border between the countries in Soviet times, which was delimited, and by the 1991 agreement on the establishment of the CIS, ratified by the parliaments of  both Armenia and Azerbaijan, those borders were recognized. We think that these agreements should be implemented in this logic. Moreover, we are ready to listen to other proposals, other ideas," Pashinyan said. 

Ararat Mirzoyan touched upon the statements of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, answering the question of Vagharshak Hakobyan, an MP from the "Civil Contract" faction.

"I'm sure that you're aware of the comments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this issue. I would like to note once again: it's not the first time that Alexander Grigoryevich's [Lukashenko] geopolitical analyses and comments have received the attention of various international partners, become the subject of discussion in different countries, including in our country, and we are convicted that his assesstments were aimed at serving the domestic political agenda of the President of Belarus, and we can be sure that it has nothing to do with the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia."

Mirzoyan also confirmed the information according to which the Ambassador of Belarus to Armenia was invited to the Foreign Ministry․ 

"Our beliefs were conveyed to the ambassador that our statements about each other should be based on mutual respect, taking into account each other's interests, taking into account each other's sovereignty and other fields on the basis of which there is cooperation between our countries. I would also add that, nevertheless, we are ready to continue to assist Belarus on various international platforms if possible in the case of relevant official applications," Mirzoyan said.

Mirzoyan also touched upon the possible participation of Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the diplomatic forum to be held in Antalya in March, he noted that the issue of the Prime Minister's participation has not been discussed and is not being discussed.

"An invitation has been sent in my name and Ruben Rubinyan’s name, there is really no decision, the decision will largely depend on the results of the Vienna meeting to be held on February 24," said Ararat Mirzoyan.

Other News

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• Russian Foreign Minister and Chairman-in-Office will discuss the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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