In an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic) Ashot Ghulyan talked about the current stage of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the risks of the restart of war, the 2020 presidential elections and the appropriateness of turning Artsakh into a province of Armenia.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: It seems like the situation on the border is calm following the agreement in Dushanbe. What do you think the reason for this is?

Ashot Ghulyan: Of course, all the agreements are valuable and significant in this period, but it’s not like Azerbaijan stops shooting after those agreements. I believe the situation on the border can be considered relatively calm. Even the weekly releases of the Defense Army of Artsakh state that the situation on the border is calmer compared to the previous years, but taking into consideration the bitter experience in April 2016, I believe this also means that the Armenian army always has to be ready and careful and work on combat readiness.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: Davit Tonoyan has made the “new war, new territories” statement, and Levon Mnatsakanyan believes there will be a war. Is the adversary likely to make a provocation in this stage and especially after the Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting?

Ashot Ghulyan: I think Tonoyan and Mnatsakanyan are doing the right thing by making statements from that perspective because, in reality, the “new war, new territories” formula was also an alarm and a very important message to the adversary. In April 2016, it was clear that if the military operations continued, the Armenian army and Artsakh’s Defense Army would prepare for large-scale counterattack operations. If you pay attention, you will see that Azerbaijan’s vice-president has also started talking about this. It’s obvious that Azerbaijan hasn’t changed its goals and mindset. I am certain that the statements of the major military figures mean that we must always be ready for any surprise operations. I believe it is very right to emphasize the fact that there can’t be any final solution without Artsakh, and the Prime Minister of Armenia is very right about the format of negotiations. We simply have to acknowledge the fact that it will take time to restore the real format of negotiations that existed in the 1990s and led to some outcomes. Let’s recall the signing of the ceasefire regime in 1994 and the agreement on strengthening the ceasefire regime in 1995. When there was a real and right format, we also had successes. When there was no real format of talks, the talks continued, but we have to state that we still haven’t achieved any specific outcome.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: The Sasna Tsrer Party (Daredevils of Sassoun) proposes to turn Artsakh into a province of Armenia. Do you think Artsakh should become a province of Armenia?

Ashot Ghulyan: This is very artificial. The party is distracting us from the main issues that we talked about earlier. There is no doubt that Artsakh is Armenia and the ultimate goal of the Republic of Artsakh is to be reunified with Armenia. I believe the talks about having Artsakh become a province of Armenia are ways of distracting us from the main path and are unacceptable for us at this moment in time

Armenian News-NEWS.am: Will you be running in the 2020 presidential elections? If not, who will you endorse?

Ashot Ghulyan: The current situation is the result of the preparations that should be made ahead of the 2020 presidential elections. Statements on running in the presidential election can’t be final grounds in the legal and political senses. As far as my participation is concerned, the standing body of our political party talked about this during its session. We stated that, taking into consideration the road that the Democratic Party of Artsakh has taken, the political responsibility of the party and our mission, we will definitely run in the presidential elections. For the time being, we will definitely participate and will most probably have our own candidate.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: If your party decides to nominate you, will you agree?

Ashot Ghulyan: I don’t want to get ahead of myself because if you talk about a decision that hasn’t been made yet, it means that this decision becomes formal.

Armenian News-NEWS.am: Do you believe the velvet revolution will continue in Artsakh?

Ashot Ghulyan: I think this is also artificial because the people of Artsakh acknowledge the fact that the revolution in 1988 was in our minds and souls. We have some experience in building a legal and democratic state, and I am certain that all the foundations and preconditions of Artsakh show that our country is well-established. In well-established countries and countries having held the right elections and with democratic institutions, everything is evolutionary. I don’t think there are grounds for a velvet revolution because there is no social base that will lead to some unpredictable actions in Artsakh.