This Peace is a Propaganda Peace Linked to Elections - Kocharian

When the peace declaration was initially signed, which has no legal basis, we spoke about guaranteed peace. This means international guarantees and guarantor states. This was stated by Armenia's second President Robert Kocharian during a podcast.

“Our approach is the following: peace cannot depend on one person's goodwill. I have called it 'the peace of my father's sun'. This cannot work. This is also evidenced by the world's experience. Two examples: one is Israel-Palestine, the other is Cyprus. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Oslo Accords were signed in Washington in 1993, declaring that the peace process was starting. The start was quite successful, but there were no guarantors, real guarantees on the ground. In January 2000, I officially visited Israel; I spent 2 nights in Jerusalem and one night at Yasser Arafat's residence. This was a time when the problems were deepening, but there was hope for peace. A year and a half later, everything collapsed, and what did we get? They just burned Gaza, more than 70,000 casualties, two-thirds of whom were women and children. The main reason is that there were no guarantees or guarantors, but three people received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Now we also have awards, and there are no guarantors.

The second example is Cyprus. The war broke out in 1974; the war was stopped, there is no peace treaty, but there are serious guarantees for establishing peace. As a result, there is real peace on the ground without a peace treaty. This has been functioning to this day; people communicate with each other. We want both a peace treaty and guarantees,” Kocharian stated.

In response to the remark that the authorities mention that there was a guarantor until 2020, but we lost Artsakh, the second president responded, “First of all, let us remember that besides Russia, Artsakh also had another guarantor, which was Armenia. That guarantor was the first to give up its function. They were in favor of that negotiation process when the war was stopped, and the November 9 declaration was signed. It was Armenia that abandoned that function and blamed Russia. They have zeroed Russia's role as a mediator. Russia had two functions: one was that it was a mediator; second, after stopping the war, it became a guarantor. When Armenia pulled itself out of that format, it collapsed the entire peace construction.

When we talk about guaranteeing, we want peace to be lasting. Other leaders may come and say, 'I did not make this promise; this is a verbal promise, it means nothing, and there are no restraining mechanisms here.' Whether Aliyev's mood changes or not, whether Aliyev will be there or not, there is no document indicating that there are other states that have taken on specific responsibilities here,” the second president added.

He touched on the accusations directed at them, claiming they are revanchists who do not want peace. “Peace guarantees also restrain the parties; this applies to both sides. Aliyev says: change the constitution, remove the reference from the declaration of independence so that we can understand that the Armenian people also agree with all this. But does the question arise, why does Aliyev not need guarantees? Tomorrow, Nikol Pashinyan may not be there. This process should not be viewed as if the guarantee is only needed for the Armenian side. If we are talking about lasting peace, that guarantee should be for both Armenia and Azerbaijan. For me, it is clear why Nikol Pashinyan does not want guarantees, because in that case, Nikol Pashinyan's name will not be directly associated with peace. He wants a kind of peace that the public's perception is as follows: if Nikol is not there, there will certainly be a war. In reality, we need peace that will have no relation to Nikol Pashinyan, Robert Kocharian, or any other person,” Robert Kocharian stated.

When asked who has the potential and willingness to assume that guarantee, the second president responded, “What measures have been taken to involve those states? Zero. They haven’t even proposed a guarantee system to the US. They are not even attempting to take steps in that direction. And they are not trying for one reason: because this peace is a propaganda peace linked to elections. That is why Nikol Pashinyan does not need guarantees; the guarantee should be him, with his conciliatory persona, and as long as he exists, Aliyev will never start a war. We need long-term peace. If there are those guarantees, everything will develop in a normal course, peacefully.”