The Lisbon summit of 1996, which is expressed by the chairman's statement, records the following: it says the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh should be resolved by exercising the right to self-determination; that is, Nagorno-Karabakh should receive autonomy within Azerbaijan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted this in an interview with Public Television.

"In 1993, the resolutions of the UN Security Council were adopted, where several records were made. According to the records, Nagorno-Karabakh was considered the territory of Azerbaijan by those resolutions. And that's how it is written: ‘Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.’

"Secondly, the achievements made with the use of force were considered illegal. The principle of inviolability of borders and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan was recorded.

"In 1994, the ceasefire comes, and the negotiation process begins. In 1996, the OSCE Lisbon summit takes place. During this period, the concept of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is placed on the right of self-determination.

"The Lisbon summit of 1996, which is expressed by the chairman's statement, records the following. It says the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh should be resolved by exercising the right to self-determination; that is, Nagorno-Karabakh should receive autonomy within Azerbaijan. That is, according to the results of the 1996 Lisbon summit, the international community has said what the right to self-determination means in the case of Nagorno-Karabakh," said Pashinyan.

"Now, why do I say that the process of dissolving the state order in Nagorno-Karabakh had already started with the negotiation content we inherited in 2018? Why? Because I say that in the negotiation process in August 2016, after the four-day war of April 2016, a third document appears in the content of the negotiations in August, which is about the following in the record of our subject, that the UN Security Council, in consultation with the UN Secretary General, Armenia, Azerbaijan and OSCE officials, will determine the ways through which Nagorno-Karabakh should organize its own life. And this will be the recognized status of Nagorno-Karabakh until the final status is decided.

"And what was the need for this document to be created? The problem is that Azerbaijan and, in fact, the other co-chairs with Azerbaijan also had recorded that Kazan provision that Nagorno-Karabakh receives an intermediate status cannot be expressed by the perceptions of the Armenian side. What was the perception of the Armenian side in Kazan that Nagorno-Karabakh, which existed as of 2011, receives an intermediate status? That is, the existing status of Nagorno-Karabakh is recorded as an intermediate status. What exists, the status quo of Nagorno-Karabakh, is recorded as an intermediate status. Azerbaijan rejects this, and in 2016, since the idea of an intermediate status exists in the Madrid principles, the third document in this package appears, which addresses the issue of the intermediate status of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"What has changed here during this period? The following has changed: if Kazan's logic is that this situation in Nagorno-Karabakh is recorded as an intermediate status, in August 2016 it is recorded that we should go to the UN Security Council, discuss there how Nagorno-Karabakh should organize its life, and that will be the intermediate status. That is, this implies that since everything will be decided by the UN Security Council from scratch, the status that Nagorno-Karabakh has will be nullified, and the UN Security Council will establish new ways, methods, and mechanisms for how Nagorno-Karabakh will organize it life—in consultation with Azerbaijan, Armenia, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, the UN Secretary General, and a number of subjects," the Armenian premier said.

According to Pashinyan, those who brought the Madrid principles to the public had noted two great advantages of these principles.

"First, the status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be determined in a referendum to be held within the agreed terms between the parties. This seems like a very good thing. But Azerbaijan used this provision. By the way, Azerbaijan needed this provision for that, to nullify the referendum of December 10, 1991 and the declaration and referendum of the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh because if the status should happen in the future referendum to be held, it means that status was not recorded in the previously held referendum.

"Secondly, Azerbaijan needed and used the provision of intermediate status recorded by the Madrid principles. Look, it says Nagorno-Karabakh gets an intermediate status. Azerbaijan used the referendum clause to zero the 1991 status quo. And it used the intermediate status to zero the status of Karabakh that day, taking [it] to the UN Security Council to start from scratch. And why should it be started from scratch, a question may arise. Because it was recorded in the Madrid principles that the Azerbaijanis have as many rights as Armenians have in all processes of Nagorno-Karabakh. If it’s about the organization of life in Nagorno-Karabakh, then the organization of that life concerns not only Armenians, but also Azerbaijanis," the Armenian PM remarked.