Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented today at the parliament the course of implementation of the 2021 Government program and the annual report.

Mediamax presents the extracts of the report relating to the Artsakh issue.

The guilt and responsibility

To date, the number of the victims of the 44-day Artsakh war is counted to 3,825. The bodies of most of them were found and identified through DNA examination and buried in 2021. From the very beginning I admitted my guilt and responsibility both for war and defeat. But I do not admit the accusations the opponents address to me after November 9, 2020 – of handing over the lands and betrayal.

I should be blamed not for handing over the lands, but for not doing it. I am guilty as in 2018-2019 I did not tell the people that all our close and not close friends expected from us to hand over the 7 regions – in this or that configuration – to Azerbaijan and lower the bar we set for the status of Artsakh.

I am guilty for not telling the people

I am guilty for not telling the people that the international community recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and expects us to do so too. I am guilty for not telling unequivocally that the scenarios not acceptable for us were not acceptable for Azerbaijan and the representatives of the international community sometimes clearly, sometimes in a diplomatic way were telling that if the Armenian side accepted them they still needed to convince Azerbaijan to do it.

I had to present all this in detail to the people, my real guilt was not doing it. If I handed over the lands, I would have probably saved thousands of lives and not doing it, I in fact became the author of decisions that resulted in thousands of victims.

I could not convince myself

To speak about it with the people I should have first convince myself that it was the right way, and I should confess that I could not convince myself. Why? The reason is the same as the one why the opposition cannot adapt to the reality and this reason may be formulated in the following way – Sanasar or Kubatli? Zangelan or Kovsakan?

In terms of content the situation is the same, and I do not want to repeat the same mistakes now.

Today the international community clearly tells us – be the only country in the world not having recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan on the bilateral level which poses a great threat not only to Artsakh but to Armenia as well.

They tell us lower a bit the bar we have set for the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and ensure a big international coalition around Armenia and Artsakh, in the opposite case they ask us not to rely on them as they would not be able to help.

These are the social-psychological motives which make us, me personally, claim more consistently, despite all the difficulties that there is no alternative to the peace agenda.

Preparation work on peace treaty

I have agreed to the start of preparation work by the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan on the peace treaty. The schedule and the format must be discussed and decided upon but the signing of peace treaty with Azerbaijan as soon as possible, is what we plan.

We do not have any illusions here, because we do not exclude the attempts of Azerbaijan to quickly lead the peace talk process into a deadlock making it an occasion for new aggression against Armenia and Artsakh. We have the same calculations regarding the delimitation work, we do not exclude that Azerbaijan will use this process to formulate territorial claims against Armenia, stating “de jure” that it does not have any territorial claims.

Understanding and calculating all the risks and challenges we have come to the conclusion that standing on the same point and not ensuring any progress in the process not only fails to reduce but even escalates the risks.

This is the reason why we have reached agreement in Brussels to set up a bilateral delimitation and border security commission by the end of April and launch the work.

This commission will have double mandate – it will work on delimitation and ensure the security and stability along the entire border. Currently we are working on the format and staff of the commission. We need to clarify the staff by April 30.

The issue of status of Artsakh

We have recorded that Armenia has not had territorial claims from Azerbaijan and the Karabakh issue is not the issue of territory but the right. Consequently, we have recorded that the security guarantees of the Armenians of Karabakh, the implementation of their rights and freedoms as well as the clarification of the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh are of principle importance for Armenia. Consequently, with this addition, Armenia is ready to start the talks.

Another very important nuance – if previously we put the status of Nagorno Karabakh as the basis and the security guarantees and rights derived from it, now we put the security guarantees and rights with the status deriving from them.

We register that the status in the current situation is not a purpose but a way to ensure the security and rights of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.