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.