It Is Possible to Sign a Peace Treaty, but War Could Start 12 Hours Later – Pashinyan

Signing agreements is not enough; they must be implemented. This was stated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a broadcast on Public TV.

“If we do not create guarantees that if we withdraw tomorrow or the day after, Azerbaijan will not attack, it means that we are making our already vulnerable security system even more vulnerable. In our initial proposal, we said that Russia should carry out monitoring, but Azerbaijan said it was unacceptable to me. This time, we included options in our proposal, saying that either Russia, or CSTO, or OSCE, or the UN General Assembly, or the EU, all as potential monitors, and we also added ‘other options’. In our understanding, monitoring should be international.

Theoretically and practically, it is possible to sign a peace treaty, and 12 hours later, war could start, which we saw on September 13,” he said.

Regarding unblocking efforts, Pashinyan noted that if Armenia and Azerbaijan are moving toward a peace agenda in the region, it is clear that such interactions should be organized in some way. 

“We have no objection if, for example, there are Turkish border guards deployed by Azerbaijan, and from our side, Russian border guards. If that option is not acceptable, then monitoring should be carried out by Azerbaijanis at the Azerbaijani border and by Armenians at the Armenian border. In the 21st century, many operations can be conducted using electronic tools,” Pashinyan added.