The joint session of the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is taking place under the co-chairmanship of Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and President of Artsakh Arayik Haroutyunyan in Yerevan today. Among the attendees are Speakers of the Parliaments of Armenia and Artsakh Ararat Mirzoyan and Artur Tovmasyan.

Before moving to the issues on the agenda, Pashinyan and Haroutyunyan delivered their speeches.

In his speech, Prime Minister Pashinyan particularly stated the following:

“Today the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh are holding their fourth session, and this is already an established format through which various issues on the security agenda of Armenia and Artsakh are discussed. Today’s session is conditioned by the establishment of the new authorities of Artsakh and a new Security Council, and Armenia attaches importance to the fact that the authorities and Security Council of Artsakh become involved in the activities as soon as possible.

During this joint session, I believe it is important to make several observations regarding three issues that I would conditionally define as the participation of Artsakh in the negotiations over the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, our approaches to the substance of the negotiations and the environment for the peace process.

During our joint session held on December 23, 2019, I attached special importance to the future nationwide elections in Artsakh which were aimed at providing the people of Artsakh with the opportunity to elect authorities that would organize political and public life in the country and ensure their security and to give the authorities the mandate to represent Artsakh at the negotiating table.

Now that the elections are over, and the authorities have been established, it should be stated that these are the authorities that the people elected. As a result of competitive and democratic elections, Artsakh has authorities that express the aspirations of the people of Artsakh for political reforms, economic development and development of infrastructures. As a result of the elections and the establishment of the authorities, there was solidarity and consolidation of political forces, and I am certain that this further strengthened Artsakh’s security.

Finally, the elections highlighted the role of the people of Artsakh and their elected authorities in the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is clear that there can’t be essential progress in the negotiations without full involvement of the authorities of Artsakh.”