Armenian premier responds to ex-presidents: Nagorno-Karabakh issue  was `a leash in the hands of certain forces`

ArmInfo. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan believes that statements by the second and third presidents, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, confirm his earlier thesis that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was "a leash in the hands of certain forces."

Pashinyan has previously stated repeatedly that the Karabakh issue  has been used for many years by many countries as a "noose around  Armenia's neck." "This issue is an instrument aimed at the  elimination of Armenian statehood," he said in parliament in October  2024.

"Statements by the KR (Robert Kocharyan) and the SS (Serzh Sargsyan)  in recent days confirm that the Karabakh issue was a leash in the  hands of certain forces seeking to tie the Republic of Armenia to the  "neighboring tree." "Peoples' rights, historical justice, and similar  terms were merely a smokescreen for the main goal," Pashinyan wrote  today on social media.

In this regard, Pashinyan is convinced that all negotiation processes  and proposals were aimed at keeping Armenia on a short leash. This  will become clear when he publishes the negotiation documents at the  end of the year, the prime minister added.

Furthermore, Pashinyan continues, all proposals to "stop the war"  boiled down to shortening the leash.  "The ultimate goal of this  process of shortening the leash was to end Armenia's statehood.

Under such a scenario, the Karabakh conflict would have ended only  with the loss of Armenia's statehood," the Armenian prime minister  asserts, pointing out that only "at the cost of the lives of our  martyrs, thanks to the historical intuition of the Republic of  Armenia and our people of Karabakh, was Armenia able to escape this  scenario."

Nikol Pashinyan also believes that the former presidents are  proposing a return to this scenario, which was originally written and  implemented under the slogan "Lenin, the Party, Gorbachev" and, "most  likely, under the auspices of the KGB."

"And since their capabilities are obviously zero, an attempt is being  made to form a "cohort of young Leninists, Party members, and  Gorbachevites" under the auspices of the old KGB.

Expected result: 0 + 0 = 0.

P.S. Our Karabakh people must settle in the Republic of Armenia with  the support of the government. Yes, this is a large-scale, complex,  and resource-intensive program, but we will continue its  implementation," Nikol Pashinyan concluded.

"As a reminder, on Saturday night, during a 7-hour live broadcast of  the Imnemnimi podcast, third President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan  named three reasons for the 44-day war in Artsakh in 2020.

The first, of course, is the avoidance of negotiations and, in fact,  a refusal to engage in them altogether. The negotiators also proposed  some kind of incomprehensible solution. And these circumstances led  to the negotiation process ceasing... I think he (the country's  leader - ed.) was unable to fully engage in the negotiations. "Just  reading the documents, it was difficult to understand where these  documents were leading," Sargsyan noted. The second reason, in his  opinion, was that events had occurred that gave Azerbaijan the  opportunity to justify its initiative to start the war. "The third  circumstance was that the Azerbaijani and Turkish intelligence were  well informed about the situation in our Army and saw that the Army's  combat readiness had noticeably decreased," the former president  said. When asked whether the war was inevitable, he gave a clearly  negative answer. "Looking ahead, was such an outcome predictable, I  will say unequivocally - no. But already in the second half of 2018,  in 2019, I saw problems in our Armed Forces, became convinced of them  in 2020, and in August 2020, I stated during a press conference that  military actions were approaching," Serzh Sargsyan said. He also  reported that the OSCE Minsk Group co- chairs proposed in 2019  Pashinyan received a new document regarding the Karabakh issue, which  had been hidden from the public for about a year. According to  Sargsyan, he warned the Nagorno-Karabakh leadership about the  existence of such a document and urged them to familiarize themselves  with it. Later, in May or June 2020, the Russian Foreign Ministry, as  Sargsyan noted, confirmed that such a document did indeed exist. As  the former president noted, he initially considered the document  unacceptable to Armenia, but later concluded that it could serve as a  basis for negotiations.

On November 9, in an interview with Channel 5, second President  Robert Kocharyan expressed confidence that Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan's refusal to implement Point 9 of the November 9, 2020,  trilateral statement led to the blockade of Artsakh and its loss. He  also asserted that a similar Washington document is now being  presented as the deal of the century, especially given the loss of  Artsakh and the Lachin Corridor. Regarding the reasons for the loss  of Artsakh and the outbreak of hostilities, the second Armenian  president noted that approximately a year before the start of the  44-day war, it was clear to him that everything was being done to  provoke a war. He is convinced that the war was caused by the  breakdown of the negotiation process, and through the fault of the  Armenian side. "The Armenian side refused to negotiate for the first  time in the history of negotiations. Kocharyan is confident that the  policy pursued by the Armenian authorities since 2018 to weaken the  army was one of the positive signals for the outbreak of hostilities.  According to him, another pretext for Azerbaijani aggression was the  operation on the northeastern border of the Armenian-Azerbaijani  border, the scale of which was inflated and almost equated in  significance with the Battle of Sardarapat. Kocharyan is confident  that the above-mentioned circumstances created ideal conditions for  Azerbaijan to initiate a war, and due to Armenia's breakdown in the  negotiation process, no one condemned this aggression. He also noted  that in recent years, the Armenian prime minister has openly stated  that Artsakh was a burden for Armenia and, by relinquishing it,  Yerevan freed itself from this burden and "gained independence." The  former Armenian president expressed his conviction that the war would  not have happened if the Armenian authorities had not made these  grave mistakes.

When asked what the outcome of the Artsakh negotiation process would  have been without the Armenian authorities' actions, Kocharyan  expressed his belief that the negotiations would have ended with the  adoption of a modified version of the Madrid Principles. "If Nikol  Pashinyan had joined the negotiation process in 2019-the OSCE Minsk  Group proposal was a good one-then everything would have ended with  the signing of such a document," Kocharyan said.

Robert Kocharyan also answered the question of whether the Artsakh  issue has been finally resolved. "We must be realistic. This means we  must fight within international structures to establish the right of  return to Artsakh. For hope to emerge, Armenia must change its  policy," Kocharyan said, pointing out that it is necessary to  strengthen the army and security system not for war, but to prevent  it. "A combat-ready army gives you the opportunity to have  geopolitical partners, not geopolitical bosses. If you [consume]  security, it has its price," the second president of Armenia said.