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.