Aliyev Afraid of Revolution and Appeals to Pashinyan: The Prime Minister Opens Up

There is a circumstance that I had refrained from discussing out of correctness, but considering the inexplicable behavior of the Azerbaijani president, I believe it is now the right time to speak about it. This was stated by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in an interview with Public Television. It is noteworthy that the interview was conducted prior to yesterday's attack on Artsakh. It has not been published, and is now being partially released.

Pashinyan addressed the discussions that he had requested time from Aliyev in Dushanbe and generally after the revolution: 'In Dushanbe, when that agreement took place... it is clear that Armenia is interested in maintaining the ceasefire regime, but why was Azerbaijan and its president interested in that agreement happening? Our opposition circles, upon analyzing this, understand that the only difference is that some conspiracy has taken place and Azerbaijan’s military-political leadership is cooperating with it. There are several important nuances that need to be clarified regarding who actually requested whom.'

'In reality, it was not I who appealed to the Azerbaijani president; rather, he appealed to me. The essence of that request was as follows: If you remember, at that time, the Yerevan mayoral elections were underway, and practically every day we were holding rallies. I happened to address the situation in Azerbaijan at those rallies and tried to engage in conversation with the Azerbaijani people, making some critical remarks about the situation in Azerbaijan. The interest of Ilham Aliyev regarding the agreement was that he would ask me to refrain from speeches regarding Azerbaijan. The revolution had just occurred, opposition forces in the region were energized, and there was continuous discussion on Azerbaijani social networks that the wave would reach Azerbaijan. The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan was concerned that those speeches could truly incite certain political processes in Azerbaijan. He personally asked me. I wrote out the points of the Dushanbe agreement on a piece of paper by hand, and we discussed those points and reached an agreement. I am pleased that such an agreement has been reached, as the internal affairs of Azerbaijan are not my agenda. Moreover, as a result, the lives of Armenian soldiers were saved.'

'But the entire context is that the president of Azerbaijan states that at that time he did not take advantage of the opportunity, generously allowing Armenia to not exploit the post-revolutionary tumult for himself, enabling the post-revolutionary government to take shape. In reality, the opposite was true. At that time, Aliyev was not concerned about the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, nor was he concerned about anything else. He was worried that the revolutionary wave would not reach Azerbaijan. This fact and subsequent facts demonstrate that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is not about Azerbaijan's national interests for Azerbaijan's military-political leadership, but rather a means to maintain its own power and authoritarian system, which we can still observe today.'