Pashinyan: Ilham Aliyev is not ready to grant broad autonomy to  Nagorno-Karabakh

ArmInfo. "We also have villages that have been occupied by Azerbaijan, if Azerbaijan is ready to  return them, we are ready as well." Armenian Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan stated this in an interview with  RFE/RL's Armenian Service  on May 5. In response to the remark that Baku had submitted a demand  to the UN that Armenia return "eight villages still occupied",  Yerevan states that Azerbaijan occupied the Armenian villages as  well.

When asked if the issue of their exchange or return is on the agenda,  Pashinyan replied: "If Azerbaijan is ready to return them, we are  ready as well."

"We also have villages that have been occupied, and a village is not  only a village administration building.  Is Azerbaijan ready to  return the villages of Berkaber, Vazashen, Aygehovit, Paravakar? [If  ready], yes, we are ready. But there is another question: suppose  that the army of Azerbaijan or Armenia stands on this line and must  withdraw from this line, we agree with this in general, but if it  withdraws, where should it stand?  How is this place, this line  determined? That means there is a border there, if there is a border,  then let's take that border and Azerbaijani troops should not be on  this side of the border line, Armenian troops should not be on the  other side of the border line," he said. Pashinyan emphasized that it  is very possible that  that it is quite possible that it is not done  first and then a peace agreement is signed, but the agreement will be  signed on how and in what terms it should be done physically.

"We are not ready for withdraw before signin, but we are ready to  sign first, only then we and they will withdraw, but it must be  written and signed in such a way that there is no room for  misinterpretation," Nikol Pashinyan added. 

The Prime Minister of Armenia also said that Azerbaijani President  Ilham Aliyev is not ready to grant broad autonomy to  Nagorno-Karabakh, which official Baku had repeatedly stated before  the 44-day war.  When asked why it is being discussed only now, while  the ruling Civil Contract party announced the de-occupation of Shushi  and Hadrut and the self-determination of Nagorno Karabakh in the  early elections, Pashinyan answered: "We faced these problems when we  walked along this path. 30 years we talked about self-determination  without understanding the fundamental problem. Yes, we did not fully  diagnose our problem.  We set goals, formulated them and followed  them." "Yes, we need to set [real tasks], ], but for that we must  first understand the reality," Nikol Pashinyan added.

"Yes, we need to set [real tasks], but for this we first need to  understand reality," Nikol Pashinyan added.  Answering a question  regarding the incident involving the Speaker of the National Assembly  Alen Simonyan, about how he feels about the fact that the second  official in the country spits on a person declared by his government  to be the highest value, Pashinyan said: "An official is also a  person, he is also a value, and this does not mean that you can spit  in him. I condemn all attempts to spit in all people. " "Of course,  there was a mistake, but this mistake happened not because the person  who made this mistake is the second official in the country, but  because the second official in the country is just a human being, so  if he were a god, he would not have made this mistake" the Prime  Minister said.