Video: In February, it's not advisable to swim, we might catch a cold, pneumonia. Pashinyan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan recently met with members of the Artsakh National Assembly's 'Free Homeland' faction. During a question and answer session in parliament, MP Arman Babajanian pointed out to Pashinyan that Artsakh deputies, after the meeting, mentioned in their interviews that Pashinyan stated that, at present, essentially, the Madrid Principles do not exist on the table for the resolution of the Artsakh issue.

Babajanian asked Pashinyan for confirmation or denial of this statement, and if such a document does not exist, what exists on the negotiation table: "This is important because at the beginning of the year, after the joint meeting of the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh, you made an extensive commentary on the Madrid Principles to understand what Azerbaijan understands about them. If we are no longer interested, is there any intention to bring a new document forward from the mediators?" Babajanian specifically asked.

The Prime Minister noted that there was a misunderstanding, as he had not said anything new compared to what he publicly stated on March 12, 2019, at a joint Security Council meeting: "In my speech, I said that as long as all parameters of the principles are not clear to us, it is difficult for us to say whether we accept it as the basis for the negotiation process or not, and I have said several times what the issue is. The Madrid Principles are essentially the road to solving the issue. We want to understand what possible places this road can take us; we want to know in advance whether we are going along this road or not," Pashinyan clarified. To make his point clearer, he provided an example: "You can go to Sevan, Gavar, Dilijan, Vardenis, Ijevan on the same road. Now we say that it is possible to go to these cities on this road, but if it turns out that our intent is to go to Armavir, there is no need to go this way, because no matter how we wander, we cannot reach Armavir through this path, and we need to go to Armavir."

"Now we say let's find out where the Madrid Principles are leading us, understand that this is the situation, and move forward. Until we reach the Gavar intersection, if it becomes clear there that someone wants to go to Gyumri, another to Armavir, and another to Artashat, it means there is a problem; someone is deceiving someone. We don’t want to deceive anyone in the negotiation process or in general," Pashinyan emphasized.

Arman Babajanian also asked Nikol Pashinyan about Armenian-Turkish relations, noting whether processes could start between Yerevan and Ankara through Russian mediation, which certain Western centers would be interested in.

Pashinyan metaphorically responded, saying, "When the month is February, and someone suggests going to swim in Sevan, that suggestion honestly doesn’t make much sense. If it's July and someone suggests we go swimming in Sevan, that would make sense. Now the regional situation and atmosphere indicate that it's February, and we shouldn’t gather our things and go swimming; we might catch a cold and end up with pneumonia."

For more details, see the video by Armdaily.am.