Opinion: The record made public  by Sargsyan confirms that by 2018,  Armenian diplomacy drove Aliyev into a corner on the Karabakh issue

ArmInfo.The record about Nikol Pashinyan, made public by third President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, testifies to the fact that by 2018 Armenian diplomacy had driven  Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev "into a corner" on the issue of  the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.  Military expert, coordinator of the  Razm.info analytical portal Karen Vrtanesyan shares this opinion.

The expert believes that the three-minute record published by Serzh  Sargsyan is the second independent confirmation that by 2018 Armenian  diplomacy had driven Aliyev into a corner. According to him, the  first confirmation of this was made by Ilham Aliyev himself in  October 2016, when he said at a government meeting that "behind  closed doors they are putting pressure on us to achieve an agreement  on the recognition of the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh."  Vrdanesyan recalled that then Aliyev stated that despite the  disagreement of the Azerbaijani side, pressure comes from all sides.

"In the released recording, Nikol himself already admits that in May  2018, Putin, Lukashenko and Nazarbayev told him that Aliyev already  understands that Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan. He is  simply afraid to talk about it in Azerbaijan.

Do you understand that all these allegations that the former leaders  of Armenia passed on to the current authorities an indescribably bad  inheritance in the Artsakh issue are a clear lie? " Vrdanesyan asked.

The expert is convinced that in this case, Pashinyan only needed to  keep in touch with the former leaders of the strange on this issue,  to delve into all the nuances of the negotiation process. But, as you  know, Pashinyan preferred to learn about the process not Sargsyan,  but Aliyev and Putin, and then do what he does best - play the fool,  "Vrdanesyan added.

At the same time, the expert believes that this three-minute  recording is a summarized textbook on foreign policy, about what you  shouldn't do if you don't want to lead your state to collapse. He  also recalled the accusations against Serzh Sargsyan that he did not  exert strong pressure on the opposition, even during the velvet  revolution, and similar accusations against the second president,  Robert Kocharian, that the latter was very mild with the team of the  first president Levon Ter -Petrosyan.

"Both Serzh and Kocharyan have always used the opposition factor to  weaken and dissipate foreign policy pressure. They say sorry, dear  colleagues, but the people will not understand us, will not accept  us, did you see what happened? 6 stalls were set up on Mashtots  Street? The same "reserve" was the non-participation of Artsakh in  the negotiation process. For example, if the pressure increased, it  could always be said that the Karabakh people are very stubborn and  do not agree, let's take our foot off the gas. All these were tools  and mechanisms that were quite effective until it came someone, and  did not dismantle everything, saying:  "I will start everything from  my new point," summed up the military expert.

It should be reminded that on June 9, third President of Armenia  Serzh Sargsyan, at a meeting with supporters of the "I Have the  Honor" bloc in Gegharkunik region, published the promised record  about Nikol Pashinyan. During the meeting, the ex-president stressed  that 24 hours have already passed, but Pashinyan did not apologize  and he will keep this promise. "My goal was to prove that the people  who had been defamatory for years were just liars who did not have  any documents at hand.

Those who knew me well said that Serzh Sargsyan would never touch the  family. And they were right. Yes, I have for a long time a wide  variety of information, but I have never said anything about anyone's  family, because I know very well what family means and what it means  to delve into dirty linen and take everything out to people. But this  does not mean that I will not keep my promise. I will now present the  recording that was recently handed over to me. After listening to it,  you will form a full-fledged opinion about this capitulator, the  image of this ignoramus, "Sargsyan said.

The disclosed record by Sargsyan presents Pashiyann's confession on  the Karabakh issue. In particular, he says: "Our first acquaintance  happened when I went to Sochi on May 12, 2018 and held meetings  there.  There was a place to drink coffee. Putin, Nazarbayev,  Lukashenko came there, they told me: so trusts the people, etc., now  you have a historical chance to resolve the Karabakh issue. I  answered: okay, I understand that now is a historical chance, but  what does it mean to solve? They tell me about some written "Lavrov's  Plan ": the troops are being pulled back, we get up and even a fly  won't fly there. I said that without specifying the status, this is  not a topic for conversation at all, which can be discussed, etc. And  then Putin, Nazarbayev and Lukashenko say: Aliyev understands that  From now on, Karabakh will never be a part of Azerbaijan. "I  answered: okay, you are saying something wonderful.

Let's put everything on paper, and this will become an interesting  topic, I will present all this to the people and say: we have such a  proposal, are you interested or not?

And they tell me here that the second nuance, they say, if you now  make it public, he (Aliyev, Ed. note) will be recognized as a traitor  to the people. And I say, that is, you do not want your old friend to  be a traitor, and I must become a traitor? and I said I won't let  that happen. And in the end, I realized that they wanted to put me on  the same conveyor, they talk, smile, drink, and at the end the April  war turned out. I then formulated my task - I need to somehow get off  this conveyor, to be in another place. You need to do this by any  means, pretending to be crazy, inadequate, but you need to get out of  this conveyor. And then the situation was very risky. Too risky. "

After the record was made public, Sargsyan added that this record  testifies to one thing - this person (Pashinyan - Ed. note) is not  crazy, this person is pretending to be crazy. At the same time, he  called such behavior unacceptable for the head of state.