Armenia`s premier specifies his position on peace agenda 

ArmInfo. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, responding to the words of his Baku counterpart that Armenia is a <fascist state> and <this fascism must be destroyed>, continues to insist on a <peace agenda> in order to not give Ilham Aliyev, who is looking for a reason, a pretext <to form <a justification> for a new escalation in the region>.

Thus, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with local TV channels on January 7 that arming Armenia would only lead to new tensions. <We do not want this. We want peace. We want the page of war to be turned. However, we see that both Armenia itself and its new patrons do not want this. They live with revanchist ideas, and Armenia is actually a source of threat to the region>, he said. According to him, the independent Armenian state is essentially a fascist state, <since this country was led by bearers of fascist ideology for almost 30 years, they formed this country in their own image>. Noting that <Azerbaijan is adjacent to a fascist state and the danger of fascism has not disappeared>, Alev said: <fascism must  be destroyed. It will be destroyed either by the Armenian leadership or by us. We have no other choice>. <I want to say once again that we will not look at this as mere observers. Armenia must immediately stop arming. France and other countries supplying it with weapons must terminate and annul these contracts.  The weapons already supplied to Armenia must be returned. This is our condition. Now let everyone perceive it as they wish. I have my word, and they and those  who stand behind them also know that if we say something, we take it very seriously," the Baku leader added.

In response to this, in an interview with the state news agency  <Armenpress>, the Armenian Prime Minister states that with its  aggressive statements, Baku is only trying to <legitimize> the  escalation in the region.

<Aggressive statements are made in the expectation that an aggressive reaction will be heard from Yerevan, which will allow Baku to make its own statements more aggressive, combining this with the dissemination of false information about the violation of the ceasefire by the Armenian army in order to form <justification> for a new escalation in the region. We will not go down this path and will adhere to a peaceful strategy and will consistently continue to implement the peace agenda. This means that we will not use the language of aggression, but the language of dialogue. We will continue to focus on delimitation, on agreeing on the text of the peace treaty, on the implementation of the <Crossroads of Peace>  project, on humanitarian issues, including the problems of clarifying the fates of missing persons>, - he noted.  Pashinyan also confirms his position in response to a clarifying question about whether Aliyev's accusations that Armenia is a fascist state are part of this logic.

<Of course, because this is a calculation for a response in the  spirit of "you are a fascist yourself", and the situation I described will begin to escalate. But there is another approach: we state that Armenia is perceived this way in Azerbaijan, and we will try to understand why, what is the reason. On the other hand, it is obvious that a similar perception of Azerbaijan exists in the Republic of Armenia. It is these mutual perceptions that have led to a long-term conflict. But the peace strategy is for us to record that we are perceived this way in Azerbaijan, and for them to record that they are perceived in the same way in Armenia. The peace agenda is aimed at eliminating these perceptions. Some of the agreed articles of the peace treaty close the page on some of these perceptions, while other  parts give us the opportunity to make all mutual negative perceptions part of the bilateral agenda and eliminate them. I will add that we have proposed solutions to the two uncoordinated articles of the peace treaty and are ready to sign the agreement in the event of a positive response from Azerbaijan>, - the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia states.