The Red Line is Our Territorial Integrity: Nikol Pashinyan

One side says there are no borders, while the other side claims that Azerbaijanis are freely entering Armenian borders. This was stated by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during an interview with Public TV.

“We face many accusations that contradict each other. At one moment, we are criticized for not taking measures to prevent the war, while at another, we are blamed for taking measures to prevent a new war. Ultimately, Armenia has gained independence over a certain territory, and if there are questions about that, I have cited the Law on the Territorial Division of the Republic of Armenia adopted in 2010,” he said, also responding to the opposition's claim that it does not pertain to state borders by saying that what relation does the Republic of Azerbaijan's borders have with Armenia's internal territorial division.

According to the Prime Minister, if there exists Azerbaijani territory within Armenia, how can they say that representatives of Azerbaijan have entered Armenian territory? He posed the question of whether there is Azerbaijan within Armenia.

“Today, what has happened is what was written in the law adopted in 2010. This is occurring to avoid a new war. When Serzh Sargsyan said that Armenia is willing to leave the 7 regions, including Zangilan and Qubatli, the same thing is being taken into account. The measures that have been taken were aimed at ensuring the security of Syunik. Since at the time of signing the November 9 declaration, over 90 percent of Qubatlu and Zangilan was under Azerbaijani control, there was an oral understanding in this context that we had to undertake demarcation of certain border points there. When it became clear that there could be a war around this issue, potentially spilling into the Syunik region, we took measures to ensure the security of Syunik. The essence of the measures taken is that the controlled area coincides with the areas within the CSTO's responsibility zone so that there is no obstacle for the specific Russian security obligations to operate concerning Armenia,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

He noted that the Syunik region, which existed in Soviet Armenia, still exists entirely today. The Prime Minister again addressed the question of why the war was not stopped, emphasizing that there was only one way to prevent the war — the return of the 7 territories.

The Prime Minister reiterated that the terms Syunik, corridor, and Meghri are not mentioned in the trilateral statement, and it claims the de-blocking of transport routes. When asked what Armenia's red line is, Nikol Pashinyan responded that “the red line is our territorial integrity.”

“Yesterday, for example, Upper Lars was closed to all types of cargo. If it turns out that we can have a railway connection with Russia, Iran via Nakhchivan, would that be good news for us or bad? How do we envision this, should we go to Russia via Nakhchivan and Azerbaijani territory, but Azerbaijan shouldn't go to Nakhchivan through our territory?” the Prime Minister concluded.