Tuesday, February 16 2021 00:34

ArmInfo.The current Prime Minister of Armenia, during his three years in power, that is, being the main negotiator, did not understand the essence of the  negotiation process to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

This opinion was expressed by the third president of Armenia, Serzh  Sargsyan, in an interview with ArmNews TV channel, reacting to the  assertion of the authorities that the previous authorities were  negotiating the transfer of 7 regions to Azerbaijan in exchange for  nothing.

According to the third president, the statements of the incumbent  prime minister, whom during the interview he called exclusively a  "capitulator", made immediately after the signing of the surrender  and an attempt to shift the blame for the failure in the negotiation  process onto the previous leadership of Armenia, are vivid evidence  of this.

"But, this bubble burst immediately, because it was also denied by  the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Popov. You might  not believe me, but is there any reason not to believe the  intermediary? If what Popov said did not correspond to reality at  least 1 mm, then the other two mediators would immediately react,  trying to fix it, "Sargsyan said, adding that the Karabakh conflict  is an issue in which the positions of the three mediators coincided.

At the same time, Sargsyan stressed that the Armenian authorities  have never negotiated what to hand over.  "We have always negotiated  what we will acquire. And for these people, the negotiations turned  into the task of "handing over or not handing over". This is absurd,  perhaps to some extent characterizing these people. Our red line was  that Artsakh will never be a part of Azerbaijan, and we clearly  pursued this line until April 2018, "he stressed.

The third president also called groundless and absurd assertions that  the November agreement is the price of a halted April 2016 war.

Sargsyan recalled that the April 2016 battles were stopped with the  mediation of the Russian Federation and with the appeal of  Azerbaijan, since during the hostilities he received a serious  counterattack and was forced to sit down at the negotiating table.  According to the third president, then the Armenian side was required  to sign a new ceasefire agreement, but Armenia refused. He also  assured that if there were any verbal agreements, then a third party  in the person of Russia once announced them, including to maintain  its image.

At the same time, he asked a rhetorical question, how did it come to  be learned that there were some agreements, while a package solution  to the conflict was still on the negotiating table.  To clarify why  the previous authorities did not achieve the implementation of the  Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements on the implementation of trust  mechanisms for two years, Sargsyan wondered `` who said that it was  possible to do this in such a short time, especially taking into  account the fact that by the introduction of these mechanisms the  contact line received international status and violations of the  ceasefire would have more serious consequences for Baku, as  Azerbaijan was well aware of>.

"When the current insane authorities abandoned our achievements in  the negotiation process and began to receive information from Aliyev  about the history of the negotiation process, I already then  understood that we were heading for defeat, that we were heading for  war," the third president of Armenia stated, adding that he was  sympathetic to the fact that the current authorities were trying to  gain time and understand the essence of the negotiations. In his  opinion, the persons who came to power could have acted as follows -  <say, they say respected co-chairs, yes, the former authorities were  thieves, bandits, robbers, etc., but, nevertheless, in 2016 there was  a war, according to the results of which you yourself made such a  statement> <Please let us implement this statement and then move on  to substantive negotiations. Instead, what did they do? They set an  incomprehensible condition for the co-chairs and Azerbaijan that  Artsakh should participate in the negotiation process. I think they  hoped to buy time in this way, "he said.  According to Sargsyan, it  was a mistake to set a condition during the negotiations on the  return of Nagorno- Karabakh to the negotiating table. <It could be a  request, a desire, but not a condition. "Can you imagine what it  meant to put a condition by Armenia in front of the co-chairing  countries Russia, France and the United States. This meant not only  the failure of the negotiations, it meant disrespect for those  countries that made great efforts to find a solution to the problem.  The presidents of the co-chairing countries have stated five times  about the negotiation process, the principles on the basis of which  this issue should be resolved. And someone appears who ignores all  this and says: "No, I have to start negotiations from my point,"  Sargsyan said.

To clarify why they accuse the current authorities of surrendering  the lands, if the previous authorities were also negotiating around  the transfer of territories to Azerbaijan, Sargsyan stressed that he  does not share the statements about the transfer of territories by  the RA authorities. "The current authorities led Armenia to  surrender, defeated the Armenian army. Can't you see the difference?  I never spoke from the position of "not an inch of the enemy". Not in  the 90s, not in the 2000s. I have always said that I see the solution  to the problem in mutual concessions, "Sargsyan said.

Touching upon the essence of the Kazan document, the third president  of Armenia noted that this document assumed the status of  Nagorno-Karabakh outside Azerbaijan. "We would receive an  internationally guaranteed promise that the status of  Nagorno-Karabakh should be determined with the free expression of the  will of the people of Artsakh, with a mandatory legal basis and an  unlimited agenda. This allowed us to calmly go to a resolution of the  conflict on the basis of mutual concessions. In addition, we received  the intermediate status of Nagorno-Karabakh, which both the President  of Azerbaijan and the mediators positively qualified, "he said.

According to Sargsyan, with an intermediate status, Nagorno-Karabakh  received 7 security guarantees:  first, the security of Artsakh was  ensured by the self-defense forces of Nagorno-Karabakh; second,  Armenia was officially the guarantor of the security of Artsakh;  electoral processes in the executive and legislative branches of  Artsakh are recognized by the international community; in Artsakh,  the judicial and legal system is recognized by the international  community; then there were questions about peacekeepers and others.  Artsakh also got the opportunity to join international structures,  where the status of recognition is not required.

"In addition, before the recognition of Artsakh, Lachin and Karvachar  remained with the Armenian side, there was no talk of corridors,"  Sargsyan noted, adding that there were clear decrees and those  persons who had the right to participate in the referendum.

He reminded once again that it was the Azerbaijani side that refused  to sign the document.