Serzh Sargsyan’s promises to Azerbaijan ‘halted 2016 Karabakh war,’ says top security official

Armenia is now facing a stalemate due to the promises which Serzh Sargsyan gave to the Azerbaijani authorities back 2016 to end the fighting in Nagorno--Karabakh (Artsakh), the secretary of the National Security Council (NSC) said today, commenting on the former president’s extensive interview to ArmNews TV channel.

“The April war ended because of the Armenian side. And those promises implied a specific timeframe – which coincided with the summer period that saw [the rebellion by the radical opposition group] Sasna Tsrer. Serzh Sargsyan used the time period to postpone [the peace deal] until April 2017, and then the process was protracted until the  [2018] government transition. By giving such promises and creating such a burden, that person quit his post then to later announce that he is ready to sign [certain documents] and take certain steps … But my opinion is that we are facing serious problems today because of his promises,” Armen Grigoryan told the Armenian service of RFE/RL (Azatutyun) on Tuesday.