Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan presented details about the agreements that were reached during the April 6 trilateral meeting in Brussels

“Yes, I gave consent for the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan to start the preparatory works of a peace treaty,” Pashinyan said in parliament. “What does this mean, what timeframes, what format – this has yet to be discussed and decided. But indeed, the signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan as soon as possible is in our plans. But I have to say that we don’t have any illusions here because we don’t rule out that Azerbaijan could attempt to bring the peace talks process into a deadlock as soon as possible and make it an occasion for a new aggression, aggressive actions against Armenia and Artsakh. We have the same calculation also regarding the delimitation works, because we don’t rule out that Azerbaijan could use this process to formulate territorial demands against Armenia, by de-jure announcing that it doesn’t have any territorial demands at all,” Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister said that by understanding and calculating all risks and challenges they reached a conclusion that remaining in the same point and not ensuring some progress in the process would not only not reduce the risks but it would escalate it. “This is the reason why we agreed in Brussels in the delimitation matter as well to form a bilateral Armenia-Azerbaijan commission dealing with delimitation and border security matters by the end of April and launch the work. What is our strategy in this matter? To clarify Azerbaijan’s official positions in the border issue, to officially record Armenia’s positions in the same matter, be maximally legitimate in our positions, meaning to use only the de-jure facts and arguments in clarifying the border, to obtain the acknowledgment of this legitimacy in the international community and based on this achieve an agreement regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan borders. What does this mean? This means that in the delimitation process we should rely on de-jure significant facts for clarification of the territory of the Republic of Armenia and not on desires or conversations, because I already mentioned the dangers of such conduct.”

The PM added that after his Brussels visit he received strong criticism regarding abandoning the proposal of a reciprocal “mirror-like” withdrawal of troops. “In this regard I have to say that in the past we’ve recorded for several times that the reciprocal withdrawal has never been a pre-condition from our side and we simply believe that a normal delimitation process is possible only regarding the borders where a certain level of security and stability exists, which unfortunately we can’t say about today’s Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Our concern that Azerbaijan wants to maintain military tension on the border parallel with delimitation to justify territorial encroachments against Armenia and formulate new encroachments is eventually perceived by the international community, but we had also reached a dangerous line where the proposal of mirror-like withdrawal of troops could’ve been perceived as a policy of bringing the situation to a deadlock. That’s why, like I said at the March 31 Cabinet meeting, we had expressed readiness to be flexible and we displayed this flexibility in Brussels, hoping that the international community will be more attentive to the security environment along the border,” the PM said.

What happened at the Sotk-Khoznavar section is certainly an omission of the armed forces and the government. But the way the CSTO reacted to what happened, I think, was a failure for the organization as well, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the National Assembly.

Contrary to the existing procedures, the CSTO has not yet decided to conduct monitoring in that section, justifying the concern of the Armenian society that this organization, which plays an important role for the security system of the Republic of Armenia, will not do anything at the right moment, remaining in the status of an observer. The fact is that the CSTO hasn’t addressed this situation even in observer status," Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister stressed that the Azerbaijani armed forces continue to be at the Sotk-Khoznavar section, creating real threats to the security of the Republic of Armenia.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declares that he admits his guilt and responsibility for both the 44-day war and the defeat, but doesn't accept the accusations of the opposition in the surrender of land and betrayal.

"Recently, in an interview, I hinted that if they want to bring an objective accusation against me, they should not accuse me of handing over lands, but of not giving up lands. Now I want to admit that I may be guilty of this, guilty of not standing in front of society in 2018-2019 and not revealing that all our friends expect us to hand over seven districts to Azerbaijan in one configuration or another and lower the bar set for the status of Artsakh. I'm guilty of not telling our people that the international community unequivocally recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, expects us to recognize it, also expects the Azerbaijanis who left Karabakh to be fully involved in the decision and management of the future of Nagorno-Karabakh," Pashinyan said.

According to Pashinyan the international community clearly states that being the only country in the world that does not recognize the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, Turkey's ally, at the bilateral level, is a threat not only to Artsakh, but also to Armenia.

It’s puzzling that yesterday the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation didn’t allow a group of MPs from Armenia to enter Artsakh, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

It should be noted that a number of opposition MPs reported that servicemen of the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation did not allow them to enter Artsakh.

According to Pashinyan, this situation is puzzling because it contradicts the provision of the November 9 trilateral statement that Lachin's corridor is intended to preserve the connection between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

"The corridor doesn’t provide for the function of checking any order, especially the prohibition or blocking of the movement of MPs, because it is for this that the connection between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh must be ensured," Pashinyan added.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan says it’s very difficult to say how long the delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border will last, however, according to him, given the special status and urgency of the issue, it should be implemented as soon as possible.

During his remarks in the Parliament, the PM said the process should start and then it will be clear that it is not work of one-two days or a month.

“This is obvious because there are many nuances which need to be clarified. Of course, I have stated in my report that we understand also that Azerbaijan is trying to somehow keep the military tension situation along the border for presenting hidden or open territorial claims against Armenia during the demarcation process. I think our this position is perceived by the international community, and we should move on by protecting the interests and borders of our country”, the PM added.

There is a perception that more Armenian captives will be released – FM |armenpress.am|

Armenia has a perception that Azerbaijan will release more Armenian captives and negotiations in this direction continue, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said in parliament, speaking about the Pashinyan-Aliyev-Michel trilateral meeting in Brussels.

“The issue of the missing persons and the release of captives and other detainees is in our primary focus. It is the subject, topic and target of our everyday work, every hour. I can’t recall any serious discussion or meeting where this topic wasn’t brought up. Yes, to this day Azerbaijan has not fulfilled the obligation it assumed under the November 9 trilateral statement on immediately releasing all prisoners of war, captives and other detainees. By bringing forward different pretexts, then linking the issue with the minefield maps, although the November 9 statement doesn’t have any such correlation, then bringing other pretexts, and now Azerbaijan attempts to link the issue with the issue of searching for those missing in the first Karabakh war,” FM Mirzoyan said.

The FM emphasized that these issues have nothing to do with one another. And the Armenian side, nevertheless, as a sign of goodwill, has done and continues doing many humanitarian steps and expects a similar conduct from Azerbaijan, both for humanitarian reasons and because it is simply Azerbaijan’s obligation under the agreement.

“As expected this subject was discussed during the latest meeting between the Armenian Prime Minister, the Azerbaijani President and the [President of the European Council] Charles Michel. And there is a perception that a new group of Armenian captives must be released. We now continue negotiating over this,” the FM said.

Mirzoyan said there are many mediations in this matter because the issue is of highly humanitarian nature. He reminded that Russia, France and the US have continuously offered mediations and each of them at a given period of time recorded success, but also other colleagues like Charles Michel’s office, Hungary.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov described his April 11 telephone conversation with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan as “professional and constructive”.

"Everyone knows that Azerbaijan has always been a supporter of the normalization of relations with Armenia," Bayramov told reporters today according to Trend. Bayramov noted that progress was made on the five key items proposed by Azerbaijan at the April 6 Brussels meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders. Further efforts are anticipated to be taken in the restoration of relations between the two nations, Bayramov said.

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