Armenia Excluded Artsakh from Negotiations for the Sake of Power, Says Nikol Pashinyan

Armenia has excluded Nagorno-Karabakh from the negotiation process for the sake of power. This was announced today from the podium of the National Assembly by acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

“For 20 years this has been discussed. Do you understand that Armenia deliberately excludes Artsakh from the negotiation process for the sake of power? Yes, at that time Armenia could have said: ‘I will not negotiate without Karabakh,’ and nothing would have happened,” Pashinyan stated.

He also cited a document adopted at the 1999 OSCE Istanbul Summit, which was signed by Armenia at the highest level. This document regarding the territorial integrity of states also touches on autonomous entities.

“The various concepts of autonomy, as well as other approaches mentioned in the aforementioned document, which correspond to the principles of the OSCE, are measures for the protection and promotion of the ethnic, linguistic, and religious identity of national minorities within the existing state,” Pashinyan cited.

He emphasized that they fought a desperate fight against all of this, and that his family participated in it as well. “That war did not pass my family by; my son was at the front line, in the place where we had the highest number of casualties. The person fighting alongside my son was killed,” he said, comparing the “desperate fight” of the 44-day war to that of the Battle of Avarayr in Armenian history.