Monday, June 20 2022 16:25

ArmInfo.. The recent speech of the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in the National Assembly of the country was a manifestation of a very good level of diplomatic  creativity. A similar opinion was expressed to ArmInfo by Sergey  Markedonov,  a Leading Researcher of the Euro-Atlantic Security  Center at the MGIMO Institute.

On June 15, Pashinyan stated in the Armenian parliament that the  status of Artsakh is not a goal itself, but a means of ensuring the  security of Artsakh Armenians. "If in the past the concept of the  Armenian side of the settlement of the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict was  based on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, from which the rights and  security guarantees of the population of Karabakh were based, now  rights and security are the basis from which the issue of status  already arises. In other words, we state that the status is not a  goal itself in this situation, but a means of ensuring the security,  rights and freedoms of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. This is  understandable to the international community, makes our goals, the  essence of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem more understandable," the  prime minister said.

"Pashinyan's statement, according to which the status of  Nagorno-Karabakh cannot and should not be a goal itself for Armenia,  but is only a means of ensuring the security, rights and freedoms of  the Karabakh people, just demonstrates this. Of course, the prime  minister did not say directly, fearing political opponents, but the  essence his speech suggests that the provision of security, rights  and freedoms of Karabakh Armenians by Azerbaijan gives Baku hope for  the transition of the NKR under its control in the future," he noted.

At the same time, Markedonov stressed that in his speech, the  Armenian prime minister once again emphasized the absence of  democratic standards in Azerbaijan, which, in fact, allow ensuring  the very security and rights of Karabakh Armenians. Nevertheless, the  analyst sees behind Pashinyan's words a clear trend towards  reformulating proposals on the status of Karabakh.  "Of course, it is  difficult to forecast in which direction this trend will develop as  of today. But, one way or another, the prime minister is trying to  position his government as thinking about the future, in contrast to  the opposition, which he presents as stuck in the past and creating  problems for a peaceful settlement. It is important for Pashinyan to  demonstrate control over the situation to everyone: critics,  opponents, supporters and doubters. And the actual decline of the  protest movement in Armenia demonstrates that relying on the past and  people from this past does not work anymore. But the opposition is  still trying to make a brand out of the past. While we need new faces  and new people," Markedonov summed up.