I have said that I welcome the idea and am even ready to provide a state plane. Pashinyan on the proposal for Ter-Petrosyan and R. Kocharyan to travel to Russia

“The second and third presidents of Artsakh, Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan, approached me for a meeting and said that there is an idea for a meeting to take place with the former and current presidents of Artsakh and Armenia. I said that I agree,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan mentioned in Parliament.

“They have undertaken to organize such a meeting, and then they told me there is an idea that first, the first and second presidents of Armenia should travel to Moscow to meet with representatives of the Russian elite, and after their return, that meeting would take place. I said that I welcome the idea and that I am even ready to provide a state plane for them to travel. They went and returned with the following proposal: that the two presidents want me to mediate for them to be received by the President of the Russian Federation as special envoys.

“I said that there is a format problem here. I am constantly in communication with the President of the Russian Federation. He can simply ask me: ‘What do you want to tell me that you cannot? And that is why we need the institution of a special envoy.’ I proposed my option, saying: ‘Let’s organize a state-level visit of Armenia's former presidents to Russia, with the receiving side being the former President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, who is also deputy chairman of the Security Council, and during the visit, let’s mediate for a meeting to be organized with the President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia.’

“They rejected this option and considered it unacceptable. After that, they told me that they had already agreed without me that they needed to meet with the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs. I then asked: ‘What do you want? What can we offer?’ They said they wanted state support and mediation for the second president to have the opportunity to leave the country. I said that considering the issue’s connection to national security, I will do whatever is possible.

“After that, the border control system under Kocharyan was opened, at least they did not travel together, and I have no other information,” Pashinyan added.