Sunday, October 25 2020 13:38

ArmInfo. Armenia's Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan gave an itnerview to CNN ''Amanpour'' program. As the press service of the Armenia's Foreign Ministry informs, the interview runs as follows: 

Christiane Amanpour: Today, the Foreign Ministers of both countries  met with the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a bid to seal  another ceasefire. Well, joining me now, fresh from that meeting, in  an exclusive interview, is the Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab  Mnatsakanyan. Welcome to the program. Can I just ask you - what  message Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, gave to you, is there  any hope that there will be a ceasefire?

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: Thank you very much for having me. The message  from Secretary Pompeo is the message of the three Co-Chair countries:  Russia, France, and the United States, who have been the  internationally recognized mediating format to find a peaceful  resolution to this conflict, and the message is one: the war has to  stop, the aggression has to stop, ceasefire has to be established,  and then we'll move on. That was the message that we share very much  and we support very much.

Christiane Amanpour: Okay, so you say that. Your counterpart, who, of  course, we did invite on this program, wasn't able to join us,  Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov, said "the only  pathway to peace is based on the UN Security Council resolutions and  respect for international law. The illegal Armenian occupation must  end and Azerbaijan's territorial integrity restored." Are you  prepared to make that concession?

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: We are not talking about concessions, we're  talking about establishing ceasefire now and returning to the peace  process. Now, when it comes to the future of Nagorno-Karabakh, this  whole conflict is about people, about our compatriots in  Nagorno-Karabakh. The Armenians, who have been resisting the  subjugation to the domination of Azerbaijan. This has been the whole  story. It is all about our people, who are pounded with bombs and  rockets and missiles. The existential physical security of our  compatriots has been the core of this problem, has been the core of  the issue. And what we have been insisting upon is that we find a  peaceful resolution to this conflict, in which the security of our  compatriots finds its expression, and that the status of  Nagorno-Karabakh, the right to self-determination of our compatriots  is a very basic principle recognized by the international community,  and that has to be delivered now.  Our people in Nagorno-Karabakh  will live in freedom, in dignity, in safety, and in security.  That's  the core issue of this conflict. It's about people. It's not the  conflict. It's the real lives of people. As we were talking, when we  were here in Washington D.C., when we were trying to further  reinforce the message of ceasefire, the message of going back to the  peaceful resolution, I've been receiving their messages when coming  out of the meetings, messages from Armenia, from Nagorno-Karabakh  that the civilian settlements, the towns of Stepanakert, Hadrut,  Martuni, have again been the target of heavy missile shelling by the  Azerbaijani forces. The civilians are dying. The civilian, the  humanitarian situation is very dire. And this is not going to happen.

Christiane Amanpour: I get it, because we have been watching it and  that is why we are having you on, and it is always the people, isn't  it? It's not the officials who sit in their palaces and walk the  halls of power. It is always the people.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: Exactly!

Christiane Amanpour: So, I want to ask you this: you've just called  Nagorno-Karabakh ethnically belonging to your people there. But the  United Nations calls Armenians an occupation force. Look, in 1993  there were Security Council resolutions demanding the immediate  withdrawal of those occupying forces, as they said. In 2008, the UN  General Assembly adopted a resolution on the issue in which it called  for exactly the same thing.  And the 2008 General Assembly reaffirmed  Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. So, this obviously has to happen  through negotiation. You can see it pointed out there in black and  white and yet you can also see that your people have a right to  safety and to their own rights. Is there any way you, because you're  very firm about what you're saying, is there any way that you and the  Azerbaijanis can get together and resolve this? Because all the  ceasefires that have been put in so far have just collapsed after a  day or so.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: Now, excellent point you are making. As we are  going back to 1993, then there is an important point to make about  that. Between 1992 and 1993 we had a very dangerous situation, when  there was a narrow strip left to the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh  with the rest of the territory occupied by the Azerbaijani forces;  the population from those territories ethnically cleansed and driven  out of their territories.  The subsequent developments have been such  that the Armenians in Nagorno- Karabakh were capable of defending  themselves: very resolute to defend their lives. And they have  created a security belt, which today has been basically a  demonstration that unless there was a security belt the  Nagorno-Karabakh population might have been again facing this ethnic  cleansing as it has always been looming over them. We are negotiating  in good faith to find a way in which the right to self-determination  of our compatriots in Nagorno-Karabakh will find its manifestation,  its resolution. That is our commitment and we will continue to work  towards achieving this objective.

Christiane Amanpour: Okay, so that is your commitment, you are  telling us now in full international platform, in full platform  across the United States, but the problem is that your Prime Minister  was there in, I believe it was August, actually last year in August,  and he was behaving in a very nationalistic way, he used, perhaps its  his language, but he used the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh and  he repeatedly led crowds chanting "unification with Armenia." Is that  your policy?

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: This is a twist we have been addressing and  dealing with over the past year. A twist and a deceptive way of  turning the words on their head. The Prime Minister has been talking  about the role of Armenia in securing, guaranteeing the security of  our compatriots in Nagorno-Karabakh. There is no other force in this  world who can do or who has been doing that. The Prime Minister has  been talking about the way in which Armenia is developing, Armenia is  reforming and he was reaffirming that Armenia will not be indifferent  to the fate of its compatriots in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Prime  Minister has been talking about the compromise-based peaceful  resolution consistently over these two years and in that speech as  well. So, these words are taken out of context and there is disregard  to the fundamental point that the solution is compromise-based and it  is peaceful. And that is the message from Armenia that has been  consistent over two years.

Christiane Amanpour: That is what people want to hear: peaceful,  compromise, diplomacy, and not fighting as we see right now. So, are  you telling me that the official position of Armenia is not to have  Nagorno-Karabakh unified with Armenia?

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: We are saying about the right to  self-determination of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh in which their  free expression without limitations will be achieved. Now, today's  situation shows that there is no way for subjugation, there is no way  for domination, there is no way that we will have the risk of ethnic  cleansing of our compatriots again looming over them, that the people  will decide their fate, and they will decide for their independence  and that has to be respected. That is the way to solve it.  So far as  the compromise is concerned, we have to be very clear: no concession,  no maximalist approach that we have been hearing from Azerbaijan.  They have to stop there.

Christiane Amanpour: Foreign Minister, thank you very much for  joining us. Again, I had the hope to have the Azerbaijani Foreign  Minister as well, he wasn't able to join us today.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan: Thank you.