Former Ambassador of Armenia to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan wrote the following on his Telegram channel:

“The presence of Russian peacekeepers must have a legal ground, that is, a trilateral agreement, or a mandate for a peacekeeping mission.

Russia had drafted the agreement before November 9, and the Armenian party signed it with willingness, but Azerbaijan didn’t sign it. The Azerbaijani party proceeds from the fact that it is the winner and Pashinyan is defeated, and it is setting forth three additional points that it would like to see in the agreement (or a section of the agreement) regulating the operation of peacekeepers.

- There should not be any Armenian troop in Artsakh since the latter is an Azerbaijani territory. The Azerbaijani troops are in Artsakh by virtue of law, Russian troops are in Artsakh upon the consent of the Azerbaijanis, and there must not be Armenian troops, neither the Armed Forces of Armenia nor the Defense Army of Artsakh.

- All visits of officials of Armenia to Artsakh must somehow be agreed upon with the Azerbaijani party.

- The self-government bodies of Artsakh must be elected/appointed upon the consent of the Azerbaijani party and the peacekeepers.

The Armenian party’s problem is that, after the defeat, it was the first to sign the document, without giving Azerbaijan the opportunity to finally present its expectations to the mediator, that is, Russia. The draft of the agreement that wasn’t agreed with Azerbaijan, but is already signed by Nikol gives Azerbaijan new leverages for negotiations, allowing Azerbaijan to demand the withdrawal of peacekeepers in case the points are not fulfilled.

P.S.: By the way, this document won’t be discussed on January 11. A totally different topic will be discussed on January 11, but there will be more information about that later.”