Pashinyan Explains What He Means by Compromise: Al Jazeera

I stated on October 26 that Armenia is indeed ready for compromises. Compromise is always painful. But that is the whole issue—what compromise means, said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in an interview with Al Jazeera.

He also commented on the concept of compromise: “Compromise means being willing to retreat somewhat from the threshold you have set, meaning readiness to lower your threshold. The whole problem is that when Armenia agrees to lower this threshold to create an acceptable field, this new threshold becomes unacceptable for Azerbaijan, and they demand more,” he said.

When asked what threshold he was referring to, Pashinyan clarified: “This is not new; this is a continuous political process spanning many years. I can give you the following example. What happened in Kazan in 2011 I think best illustrates my point. I already stated that the Republic of Artsakh declared its independence. And, in effect, this is the threshold that Artsakh, Artsakh Armenians, and the Armenian people set. In 2011, the then-leadership of Armenia agreed to give territories to Azerbaijan. And in the context of that agreement, Artsakh was to receive an interim status so that later, after the return of refugees from Artsakh, a referendum would be held to determine the final status of Artsakh.”

Regarding whether the return of refugees would be only from Azerbaijan or also from Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan stated, “We are talking about the return of refugees from the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region and generally from the conflict zone. And this constitutes quite a serious lowering of the threshold. As a result of lowering this threshold, a document was formed, which was essentially already agreed upon by Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. But Azerbaijan refused to accept this document at the last moment. And this process illustrates why the issue has not been resolved. Because every time the Armenian side shows some flexibility and even slightly concedes its positions, that becomes unacceptable for Azerbaijan.”