Pashinyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan's Political Policies are the Same: Vitaly Balasanyan

The political policy of the current authorities of the Republic of Armenia concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is a continuation of Levon Ter-Petrosyan's policy, stated Vitaly Balasanyan, the former Secretary of the Security Council of Artsakh and a national hero of Artsakh, at a press conference today.

"Levon Ter-Petrosyan's program was to grant extensive autonomy to Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan, and to this day, we see that Levon Ter-Petrosyan has never renounced that program," Balasanyan said.

Balasanyan also commented on what Nikol Pashinyan is doing with his political power. "When Nikol Pashinyan was first elected Prime Minister on May 8, I was serving as the Secretary of the Security Council. I had known him for a long time, our relationship has been very warm, we recognized each other many years ago; you can ask him or his wife about the quality of our relationships," he noted.

Balasanyan addressed Nikol Pashinyan's vision regarding Artsakh and mentioned that no such vision exists. "What he said about new documents transferred to the leader of the Republic of Artsakh, Nikol Pashinyan has never handed over any new document," he emphasized.

He indicated that for discussions related to the negotiation process, either the President of Armenia or the Minister of Foreign Affairs has constantly met with the President of Artsakh. "Any negotiation process, which needed to be discussed, was presented to the Artsakh authorities, either the President of Armenia, or the Minister of Foreign Affairs came to present it, or the President of Artsakh came to Yerevan to discuss what had to be talked about. The co-chairs of the Minsk Group have always visited Yerevan, Baku, and Artsakh. There is no vision; the vision is Levon Ter-Petrosyan's program to grant extensive autonomy to Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan. Nikol Pashinyan pursues such a policy," Balasanyan stated.

Vitaly Balasanyan mentioned that what he said about Pashinyan's elevator diplomacy in Artsakh was necessary to inform the entire Armenian community about the reality.

Balasanyan recalled that during the war years, when they started to silence the firing points and opened land routes to Armenia, the Armenian authorities were opposed. "I am making an official responsible statement; when we liberated the center of Karvachar in 1993 at the well-known meeting in Goris, where the then-acting Chairman of the Supreme Council of Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgi Petrosyan, was invited to sign the document that our troops would withdraw from Karvachar, the Artsakh side, the military-political authorities, expressed opposition, we did not sign any document. Now they say, without Levon Ter-Petrosyan's knowledge, how did you liberate those territories; let Levon Ter-Petrosyan answer that question," he said.

Balasanyan noted that they had aimed to liberate Aghdam, which the Armenian authorities were also against. "When we launched the offensive operation, a representative sent by Levon Ter-Petrosyan said we should stay away from that operation, but the decision of the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities was one—to silence and liberate the Aghdam area as soon as possible, of which I was the commander. Under my command was a force of 3000 troops; we started that operation on July 22, and at 3 a.m. I received the order to stop, but we did not stop. On July 23, we liberated Aghdam along with surrounding settlements," Balasanyan stated.

He mentioned that for about a week the Armenian authorities urged them to leave Aghdam territory, but they did not leave. "A week later, the President of the Supreme Council, Babken Arakelyan, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Vano Siradeghyan, came to Aghdam; you can inquire, they appeared in Aghdam at my headquarters where all the battalion commanders were present. The Armenian political authorities had decided that we should leave the Aghdam territory. I will not repeat harsh phrases; I firmly responded that we do not have such a force that we would leave that territory; it is our historical territory, which has been attached to Azerbaijan. Now let Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Babken Arakelyan, and Vano Siradeghyan be questioned on that," he concluded.