Elites have a Different Interest in Karabakh Issue: Nikol Pashinyan

On June 17 2020, Prime Minister Pashinyan addressed a question by MP Tatevik Hayrapetyan regarding improvement in the ranking in the Global Peace Index. Armenia is globally the second and Azerbaijan is the first in terms of improving global peacefulness record.

Hayrapetyan, reminded, though about the threatening and bellicose statements of Azerbaijan’s high authorities. Pashinyan’s response is below:

Politics that lies in the heart of the government’s treatment of the Karabakh issue and overall treatment of the region since 2018 is based on the substance of peace. This is visible to the international community. But the politics that has been carried out by Azerbaijan for a long time, is based on the logic of bellicose statements.

Their aim is primarily to make sure that Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh perceive the process of settlement through fear. But the Armenian people is not used to perceive things, moreover the Artsakh issue through fears, this is excluded, we have said and I reiterate, it is excluded that the Republic of Armenia be forced a negotiations material under threats.

Because bellicose statements are not effective, they find their way in a cycle of repetitions. The Azerbaijanian authorities face the issue of explaining to their own people that they have been advancing this bellicose logic for years, why do they not achieve any results?

….

I call on the President of Azerbaijan to demonstrate a constructive approach and to finally take a public agreement to my formula; any settlement in Artsakh must be acceptable for the peoples of Artsakh, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

I think one of the reasons that the militarist rhetoric has risen among the Azerbaijanian elites is the internal fear that in the technological age we can speak with the people of Azerbaijan directly. They understand that the issue of Karabakh can be not only an issue national security, but also an issue of wealth, maintaining authority, but for peoples it has a much larger context. I have never excluded that if I see that the dialogue with Azerbaijani elites is failing, we can frankly speak with the people of Azerbaijan and we should know that this option is on our agenda.