Narek Karapetyan: “Strong Armenia” is heading toward peace without concessions, while Pashinyan is making concessions without peace

ArmInfo.  The “Strong Armenia” faction intends to achieve peace with Azerbaijan without concessions, while Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is making concessions without peace. Head of the “Strong Armenia” parliamentary faction Narek Karapetyan stated this in an interview with Petros Kazaryan on Armenia’s Public Television (OTA).

Thus, according to him, Armenia has been giving away only its territories all this time. “Isn’t that so? However, the question is why, during all this time, the Azerbaijani side has not returned our territories to us. Why, for example, does the delimitation of the border not begin with Jermuk?” Karapetyan asked.

According to him, their political force’s position on this issue is that it is not a hopeless matter and that solutions exist. “We want to propose these solutions. We intend to begin the process of delimitation and demarcation of the border from those sections that are problematic from the standpoint of Armenia’s territorial integrity,” he noted.

In response to a clarifying question as to whether they would, in that case, hand over Tigranashen, given that, according to the maps (Kazaryan did not specify which maps exactly were meant - ed.), it belongs to Azerbaijan, if the Azerbaijani side agreed to return the territories in the Jermuk area, the faction leader recalled that, according to the Law “On the Administrative-Territorial Division of the Republic of Armenia,” Tigranashen is Armenian territory. Kazaryan ironically remarked that, apparently, they were going to conduct demarcation exclusively “according to the laws of Armenia.”

“What is your goal in that case - to hand over the road in Syunik? The whole difference is that we are moving toward peace without concessions. And Pashinyan is making concessions without peace. In other words, they (the ruling party - ed.) are acting according to the logic: ‘Let’s give away everything and see what else they will demand from us,’” the faction leader pointed out.

Meanwhile, according to Karapetyan, they see another way to resolve this issue, taking into account the current geopolitical realities. In particular, he said, by changing the negotiator, they could secure the positions of two regional countries advocating Armenia’s territorial integrity. According to him, one of these countries is Iran (Karapetyan did not get around to naming the second country because the host interrupted him - ed.). After that, the politician merely added that, provided there is a guarantor of their territorial security, they do not intend to abandon the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” project (TRIPP - ed.).

It should be recalled that after the June parliamentary elections, the Armenian prime minister stated that the village of Tigranashen was allegedly an Azerbaijani enclave and called it an Azerbaijani toponym. During a briefing on September 11, Pashinyan repeated his claims and noted that the fate of the village would be determined during negotiations. According to him, everyone who says otherwise is provoking war.

The Armenian opposition and independent researchers are categorically opposed to handing over the village, which has never been Azerbaijani.  The M-2 interstate highway, linking Yerevan with the country’s southern regions (Vayots Dzor, Syunik) and Iran, passes through Tigranashen.  Transferring control over this point to Azerbaijan could block or critically complicate Armenia’s strategic logistics.