Preparing for Peace Does Not Mean Surrendering Weapons and Giving Up: Gevorg Papoyan

The Prime Minister of Armenia noted that Aliyev's recent specific statements are unacceptable to us, questioning whether negotiations should take place when Aliyev makes statements that do not contribute to peace, but rather contribute to the escalation of tensions in the region. This was stated by the MP from the ruling party, Gevorg Papoyan, during a conversation with journalists in the National Assembly today.

"Of course, yes, because always stepping back from negotiations means saying that we are heading towards war. That's not right, and we are not moving in that direction. On the other hand, preparing for peace does not mean handing over weapons and giving up. Preparing for peace can also imply actions such as increasing your combat readiness to be ready for peace, because our army has no intention of capturing territories from other countries. Our army has one goal: to keep the territories of the Republic of Armenia inviolable, which is its constitutional obligation.

They talk about 8 villages, we talk about 32 villages. But we do not want there to be 8 villages and 32 villages. We want both Armenia and Azerbaijan not to have territories that were specifically delineated in the Almaty Declaration when Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence from the USSR, and we want those maps to be laid out with the exact coordinates so that a commission can come and say, for instance, that the Armenian-Azerbaijani border runs near this particular village," said Papoyan, adding that these are the maps that have a legal basis.

To the remark that Azerbaijan rejects the maps presented by the Armenian side, the ruling party MP stated, "Let Azerbaijan propose another map that has legal justification. One can bring a map from the second century BC, that's not serious. One can bring a map from the Treaty of Turkmenchay of 1828, that's also not serious. We should bring a map where Armenia and Azerbaijan were independent states or within the USSR, where there were specific borders that had legal grounds. We say the 1974 map, but if a 1960 map appears, which also has legal basis, we fundamentally have no problem with that. That map must be validated by the Supreme Councils of the Azerbaijan SSR and Armenian SSR, or from the side of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. It must be an official document.

Regarding Aliyev's statement that they will not retreat from the territories they occupy, which are the sovereign territories of Armenia, Papoyan said, "This is one of the destructive statements that is unacceptable and in no way contributes to resolving the current situation. A peace agreement is not being signed today also for this reason. It is clear that without maps, any solution will have legal issues, potentially creating new political tensions in the future. The fair approach is to take the map, base the peace treaty on it, and then coordinate commissions from both sides can begin to clarify the coordinates. If the peace treaty is based on the map, the issue will be technical in the future."