Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan believes that the Karabakh settlement should take into consideration the interests of all three parties; namely, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan.

“I was criticised by the Armenian public and media, since the president of Azerbaijan refused to do the same. Moreover, he repeatedly uses aggressive rhetoric that has a very negative impact on my efforts to prepare people for the peace and damages the mediation efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs,” he said in an interview with Euractiv website. 

He descried it as “absolutely necessary” to get Karabakh involved in the negotiations, in a process that ultimately will determine the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and ensure the security guarantees for the people who live there.

“Two former presidents of Armenia were born, raised, and lived in Artsakh. Unlike them, I do not represent Artsakh, the people living there did not participate in the elections in Armenia, and therefore, I do not have the mandate to represent the population of Artsakh in a peace process.

I represent Armenia and am ready to engage in negotiations on behalf of Armenia. If Azerbaijan also states that the settlement of the conflict should include the interests of all parties involved, it would give a good opportunity to resume the negotiations based on mutual trust,” he said.

Asked about Ilham Aliyev’s tweet that 2019 would give “a new impetus” to Karabakh, Pashinyan said it is positive if by “giving a new impetus” President Aliyev meant recognition of the right of self-determination of people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“If not, then it is simply another bold statement.

Of course, we would like to give new content to the peace process and have already submitted our vision through the mediators to the Azerbaijani side. Peace is in the best interest of all countries of our region, and we are committed to exerting efforts to achieve a lasting and sustained peace,” he added.

Pashinyan emphasized that it is important that UN welcomes the peace process.

“The mediators represent influential countries that have permanent interests in our region, and we see that all three co-chairing countries are effectively cooperating with each other in the exercise of their mediation mission. All three of them are also permanent members of the UN Security Council.

We highly appreciate the statements made by the high-ranking UN officials, who keep highlighting the OSCE format of the settlement established in 1992,” he said.