Republican Party of Armenia 'concerned' over Russian FM's statement on Karabakh

10:37 • 22.04.20

Politics

The former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) has expressed its concern over Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's recent statement on Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh).

In a recently released official statement, the RPA Executive Board criticized particularly Sergey Lavrov's remark on a step-by-step plan to reach a settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

The full text of the statement is below:

The Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) expresses its concern over the information provided by the Russian Foreign Minister on the developments in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks at this stage and expresses indignation over the Armenian government’s foreign policy line regarding this issue. It is not in our national interest and can have devastating consequences for the Republic of Armenia and the Artsakh Republic. It will nullify the basic principles of the talks held with the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs until 2018, including the five statements issued by the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing nations Russia, United States and France. It will undermine the strong negotiation position of the Armenian side.

While conducting the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks in the period between 2008 and 2018, as prescribed by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, RA President Serzh Sargsyan, who coordinated Armenias foreign policy together with RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan, acted in full agreement with the NKR authorities, and unequivocally rejected and never discussed the phased resolution of the conflict considering it unacceptable and unfeasible.

It is obvious that unlike the phased approach, the package option from the very outset stipulates the basic principles and elements of the settlement, and each side sees clearly what it will get in the end. The danger of the phased approach is that at some point one of the parties may get what it was looking for and therefore can give up the talks, which makes the phased scenario uncertain and full of serious challenges.

The phased version cannot guarantee Artsakh peoples right to self-determination by means of a legally binding expression of their free will, which is vital for the Armenian side. This is obviously undermined in the phased option, which was made public by RF Foreign Minister Lavrov when commenting on the current round of talks.

Formerly there used to be a regular talk about the package settlement with a step-by-step implementation scenario. Instead, Sergey Lavrov today made very clear and unambiguous statements during a videoconference with the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Support Club representatives.

The Armenian Foreign Minister did not deny the statement of his Russian counterpart about the new draft proposed to the parties in April last year. Therefore, we strongly condemn the misleading and dishonest statements made by the incumbent Armenian authorities about the lack of a specific document on the table of negotiations.

Due to the non-professional and populist approach embraced by Armenias incumbent political regime, which started the negotiations “from its own point and gave up the Madrid Principles, the Vienna and St. Petersburg-Geneva agreements, and thereby Artsakh people’s right to self-determination.

We hereby reiterate that we will not accept any such settlement that will ignore the principle of guaranteed implementation and recognition of Artsakh peoples right to self-determination, as well as the provision of international guarantees for the security of the population of the Republic of Artsakh.

We strongly believe that the issue can be resolved through compromise, which should prioritize the provision of clear-cut guarantees for recognition and implementation of the right of the Republic of Artsakh to self-determination.

Artsakh will never be part of Azerbaijan.