The only visible option for the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh is to cling to the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020. This was stated by the second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, during his press conference Monday.

According to him, if Azerbaijan is talking about a road via Armenia, then the latter can say that this is only one of the points of the aforesaid statement, and Armenia should declare that if Azerbaijan is ready to fully return to this statement, then this matter can be discussed.

The second president of Armenia added that this is the only way to reintroduce the topic of the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh into the negotiation process.

“There is such an opportunity, although the probability is extremely small, but even this small opportunity must be used,” Kocharyan noted.

But even this is not done because the incumbent Armenian authorities, in his opinion, do not want Armenians to return to Nagorno-Karabakh as this may complicate their lives, as demands may arise regarding taking certain actions on certain matters.

The second president of Armenia did not rule out that the most beneficial option for the incumbent Armenian authorities is for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh not to remain in Armenia, on the principle of “There is no people, there is no problem.”

Kocharyan said that without international guarantees, Armenians will not return to Nagorno-Karabakh, and this return includes a package of guarantees, which is a matter of the negotiation process.

“Refusing to even discuss this matter means voluntarily renouncing possible leverage over Azerbaijan. They [i.e. Azerbaijanis] have carried out ethnic cleansing [of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians], and this is not a good topic for them,” the former president of Armenia emphasized.

He expressed confidence that discussing the matter of the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh means introducing the fact of ethnic cleansing into the negotiation process.

"Wouldn't it have been possible to prevent the trial in Baku of the captured Armenians in exchange for what happened in [Armenia’s] Kirants village [at Azerbaijan border]? I say unequivocally that the Armenian authorities did not even try to do that," Robert Kocharyan concluded.