Robert Kocharyan on Crossroads of Peace project: do they take  everyone for fools?

ArmInfo. Theoretically, a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan could be signed, as stated by Armenia's second President Robert Kocharyan at a press conference on February 17.  

However, according to him, considering  the current format of negotiations, what is being discussed is not  true peace. In this context, the former president believes it very  dangerous to engage in negotiations with Azerbaijan without  mediators. Without an involvement of a guarantor country or  countries, the possibility of reaching a peace agreement is  non-existent.

Against this background, Robert Kocharyan continued, statements by  the Armenian authorities about the possibility of dissolving the OSCE  Minsk Group are stupid. "Yes, if you have a powerful army and economy  that can act as guarantors, then this is a completely different  matter, but in the context of a radically changing world, where it is  unclear what will happen next, it is impossible to deviate from the  established format. The dissolution of the OSCE MG will cause  irreparable damage to the negotiation process, this format should be  preserved at all costs, otherwise it will be incredibly challenging  to create a new similar negotiation format later. It is unclear why  the Minsk Group is bothering you. Let this negotiation format remain.  If a different, but workable format is formed later on, then the  current one can be dissolved. Why are we wrestling with  the same  issues every time. They already have calluses on their foreheads, and  now the country has calluses on its forehead. Why the Minsk Group is  bothering you? Is this Azerbaijan's demand? Just refuse, what's the   issue here?" the politician said, adding that the authorities  apparently need this agreement for the upcoming election campaign,  while what will be in this agreement is not important to them, and  the current Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, Nikol  Pashinyan, takes full advantage of this. 

Speaking about the Crossroads of Peace project, the former president  pointed out its dead-end nature.  Pashinyan presented the public with  a dead-end, but presented it as a crossroads. "It's one thing when  you present this project to the people, and quite another when  experts review it,  logically questioning who you are taking as a  fool," the former president of the Republic of Armenia noted.