The Justice Party of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), which had endorsed Vitaly Balasanyan during the presidential elections in Artsakh, has issued a statement stating the following:

“When Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan declared that he is not entitled to also represent the authorities of Artsakh in the negotiations over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since he has not been granted the power by the authorities of Artsakh, it seemed to the Justice Party of Artsakh and many others that this statement was not populist at all and was a serious political statement to call things by their names.

However, later, to everyone’s surprise, Nikol Pashinyan started making mutually exclusive statements that weren’t in the interests of the Armenian side at all. Last year and during his recent news conference, Nikol Pashinyan used the term ‘selected representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh’, which directly deals a blow to the fact that the self-determined Republic of Artsakh is an entity and to the security of the Republic of Artsakh.

All this becomes even more dangerous when Azerbaijan actively states the idea of representatives of the ‘Azerbaijani community’ of Karabakh. Some Gyanjaliyev, who represents that ‘community’, has phone calls and meetings with representatives and ambassadors of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries, the ‘community’ takes part in the elections of the Mejlis of Azerbaijan, Gyanjaliyev is a deputy, and today, he is a delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. For years, the official Baku had been making efforts to turn the ‘community’ into a side of the negotiations and a factor.

The termless agreement on ceasefire in the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict zone entered into force on May 12, 1994 and was signed by the representatives of the Republic of Armenia, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and the Republic of Azerbaijan.

To this day, the desire of the Azerbaijani authorities to engage representatives of the ‘Azerbaijani community’ of Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiations over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict hasn’t become a reality, but the current position of the Armenian authorities is paving the way for implementation of the Azerbaijani authorities’ goal.

The process of negotiations over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the final battle of the Armenian nation in which we will pay a high price for the mistakes, and the losses will be irreversible. The authorities of Armenia and Artsakh need to be maximally responsible and discreet and serve the entire potential of the nation.

The political leaderships of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh must always remember that the Armenian people have already solved the Karabakh issue and that there is only one issue on the negotiating table, and that is international recognition. Karabakh will always be the Republic of Artsakh, a self-determined state.”