YEREVAN. – Regarding the statement of acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan that I allegedly told him that, "You should give the lands already," I propose demanding that Pashinyan publicize the recording of our conversation. The First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the candidate for prime minister from the Armenian National Congress party, told this to a press conference Thursday, and regarding the avenues for resolving the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict.

He said that this conversation took place at Pashinyan's house, expressing confidence that the acting PM had definitely recorded the conversation. "I told Pashinyan that he should specify what he inherited from [his predecessor] Serzh Sargsyan—in the form of documents on the Karabakh issue. (…). I told him, ‘If you bring a better solution than Sargsyan, it will bring you honor, but if you bring a worse decision, it will be your disgrace,’" Ter-Petrosyan said.

The First President reminded that he himself had taken such a step back in 2008, when he had decided to run for president again, and wanted to get acquainted with the situation which was presented by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs as the last document. "At that time I told the US representative in Armenia that the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship had stated that the provisions [the first plan] on the Madrid Principles were 99-percent agreed between the parties. I asked to inform Matthew Bryza [former US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group] that he show on the paper what that 99 percent means and to offer it to the parties as an official document. (…). Both I and even Serzh Sargsyan needed it so that we could record from which point to start the settlement [of the conflict]. A month later, Bryza officially presented the document," the First President of Armenia concluded.