Pashinyan's team has revised positions on Karabakh - former FM calls for clarifications

13:29 • 13.05.20

Politics

Hripsime Hovhannisiyan

Tert.am has interviewed Arman Melikyan, a former foreign minister of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), over the recent developments around the NK conflict settlement process, including Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement at the National Assembly. The diplomat highlighted a "change of positions" by the current authorities (particularly, after the 2018 parliamentary election), noting that Armenia earlier publicly refused to negotiate on behalf of Artsakh, downplaying the top-level summits and ministerial-level talks as just "consultative discussions".

Mr. Melikyan, discussions are still going on over Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement on Nagorno-Karabakh. He revealed the so-called phased settlement plan as an option on the negotiating table, thereby intensifying the discussions over the problem. What do you think Russia desires by revealing 'secrets' from the settlement process?

Mr. Lavrov's statements did certainly liven up the political discourse in both Azerbaijan and Armenia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proclaimed the stage-by-stage conflict settlement option as an agenda, provoking virtually a panic here while raising enthusiasm in Baku. I know one thing for sure: without a platform of their own for resolving this conflict, no party - not even Moscow - will ever wish or try to coerce Yerevan into territorial concessions. They may try to persuade things but it is up to us to never yield to such persuasions. It is another matter that the negotiating positions need to be strengthened in general.

What the Armenian authorities were saying until quite recently was that 'no negotiations are going on'. But Lavrov's statement came to prove that they are actually in progress. Also Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan affirmed the fact at the National Assembly by saying "Let no one dictate us a negotiation agenda; we are negotiating what we are supposed to". Why do you think the Armenian authorities were now covering up the ongoing negotiations? Don't you find that negotiations, if any at all, must be given specific clarifications?

Prime Minister Pashinyan's team has revised positions on the negotiations. What they stated repeatedly before the latest parliamentary election was that 'Armenia is not going to negotiate instead of Artsakh', and the dialogues held between the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders and foreign ministers under the co-chairs' umbrella will be consultations rather than negotiations unless the countries acting in the capacity of co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group provide the necessary and satisfactory clarifications on the settlement [plan] known as Madrid Principles, a formula negotiated under the former authorities.

The incumbent authorities have thus either digressed from their adopted approaches or else received the satisfactory clarifications for themselves but failed to notify the public of that or otherwise decided, without receiving any clarifications at all, to refer to their dialogues with Azerbaijan as just negotiations. Such a digression, spontaneously, entitles any citizen to demand accountability from the government for the unexplained change, voicing discontent that the authorities practically disavowed their pre-electoral promise. Hence it is for the government itself to give the necessary clarifications.

Prime Minister Pashinyan also stated at the National Assembly that any possible proposal which they find debatable in the negotiation process will be brought to the National Assembly and put to a vote. What he was speaking about until recently though was a nationwide referendum. Do you have the kind impression that Pashinyan has somewhat changed his mind? Is such an intention acceptable given that his political force enjoys an absolute majority in parliament?

I think it will be useful in general to establish a specific legal procedure necessitating open official debates on the level of the [National] Security Council, the government and the parliament over any settlement proposal - whether by the co-chairs or the conflicting parties themselves. It will be important also in the sense that it will keep us intact from any harmful pressure and proposal for entering into transactions behind the veil of secrecy.

Mr. Melikyan, though Nikol Pashinyan says he never renounces any of his statements on Nagorno-Karabakh, we do observe a range of conflicting remarks made over the past two years on the topic. Do you see any clearly outlined plan by the Armenian authorities with regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process?

There are certain contradictions of course; we have heard both successful and not quite successful wordings over the period, and I have already taken the chance to address some of them as part of this interview. As to our negotiation positions, they continue to remain vulnerable due to the fact that our negotiation platform has not for now considered the possibility of ensuring the uniformity of all the settlement elements, i.e. - the political status of Artsakh, and the maintenance of security and territorial integrity. Our negotiators continue, in point of fact, basing their theories on the assumption that two thirds of Artsakh is a security zone.

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