ArmInfo.We found ourselves in an uncontested situation. On November 10, Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated this on November 10 live from his Facebook page, explaining the decision taken the day before to end hostilities, on the terms of the transfer of territories.
He stated that the Defense Army and the political leadership of Artsakh formulated a task - to stop the war a minute earlier in order to avoid more serious consequences. - said the prime minister.
Since the situation developed in this way, when the Armenian side was forced to make such concessions, Pashinyan explained why this decision was not made on September 27, when military operations had just begun. "For the simple reason that the conditions of the ceasefire remained the same. That is, the transfer of 7 regions to Azerbaijan. But we could not take such a step, because we believed that the Artsakh Defense Army and the Armenian people would be able to eliminate such a need, "the head of government said. From this, in his opinion, the following question arises - why now the Armenian leadership has agreed to such conditions?
"Because, listening to the assessments and reports of the Defense Army, it became obvious to us that the consequences of further hostilities would be even more difficult, and they must be stopped in any way at this moment. Yes - to accept the conditions, because as a result of the continuation of hostilities their acceptance would be inevitable. It's true. And it is important to say that was this war really inevitable? I want to say frankly that there was only one possibility to avoid this war - to surrender these territories to Azerbaijan without accepting the status of Karabakh. And this, in fact, was the basis of the negotiation process, "inherited" from the previous authorities, "Pashinyan said.
He said that since the beginning of the negotiation processes from 94-95. To this day, the priority of the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process has been the transfer of 7 regions to Azerbaijan. At the same time, there was a question about clarifying the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, over 25 years, Azerbaijan, thanks to its financial and military capabilities, step by step ousted from the negotiation process the issue of recognizing the status of Karabakh outside Azerbaijan.
He admitted that the Armenian side failed to create opportunities for discussions on the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh within the framework of the negotiations. "And we accepted the negotiation process at the point when for 25 years the priority in the negotiations was the issue of surrendering the territories to Azerbaijan," he stressed.
The Armenian side, according to Pashinyan, tried to postpone this issue for decades, but in the end, as he noted, a moment comes when a situation has already been formed where the issue of surrender of territories is a consensus for the international community.
As of May 2018, according to the prime minister, this was a consensus between the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. And even in 2016, it was already imperative to implement this condition. , - he said.
The prime minister noted that this is an oversized topic, to which we will return repeatedly, moreover, there are still many questions to which the country's leadership will answer. In this vein, he called for keeping calm, martial law and uniting around the Armenian statehood in the name of our country, people and Artsakh.
Recall that this morning the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the President of Azerbaijan and the President of the Russian Federation issued a joint statement on a complete ceasefire and all hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict from 00:00 Moscow time on November 10, 2020. The Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia stop at their positions. At the same time, the Agdam region and the territories held by the Armenian Party in the Gazakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall be returned to the Azerbaijan Party until November 20, 2020.
In addition, the Republic of Armenia will return the Kelbajar region to the Republic of Azerbaijan by November 15, 2020, and the Lachin region by December 1, 2020, leaving behind the Lachin corridor (5 km wide), which will ensure the connection of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia and at the same time will not affect Shushi.
By agreement of the parties, the construction of new transport communications linking the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic with the western regions of Azerbaijan will be ensured.