Azerbaijan is doing everything to abort the Baku-Stepanakert dialogue. This was announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the Armenian government.

"Despite the agreements reached at the international level, Azerbaijan announces—after only two meetings—that it will discuss the topic of reintegration with the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, while the international agreement is that the discussion should be about the rights and security of the Nagorno-Karabakh people. Against this background, the launch of the international mechanism of Stepanakert-Baku dialogue becomes more important because now it is obvious that without such a mechanism, the agenda will fail, will be forgotten by Baku," he said.

The Prime Minister said the fact is also worrying for Armenia that the international mechanism defined by point 7 of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020 has not yet been activated; that is, "Internally displaced persons and refugees shall return to the territory of Nagorno Karabakh and adjacent regions under the control of the Agency of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.”

"This means that international mechanisms for the return of Armenians from Hadrut region, Shushi, Martuni and Martakert regions, Shahumyan region, Getashen, Lachin, and other adjacent regions of Nagorno-Karabakh should be launched. I have instructed the foreign ministry to start official negotiations [in this regard] with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees," he added.

The problem, according to Pashinyan, is that point 7 of the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020 refers only to the refugees and internally displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh and their immediately adjacent regions.