The peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be separated from the Artsakh issue, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with Public TV.
The Prime Minister said there is no document on the table today ready to be signed and added that during the upcoming meeting in Geneva the Foreign Ministers of the two countries will start substantial talks on the content of the peace treaty.
Asked what concessions Armenia is ready to make, the Prime Minister said: “The internationally recognized area of the Republic of Armenia is 29,800 sq km. Those who call me a “traitor” after this statement consider that the area is 300,000 sq km and we should not recognize any border until we reach an area of 300,000 sq km. They may be people who consider it a refusal form the idea of sea-to sea Armenia, and therefore also a treason.”
“But what we say is that the reciprocal recognition of each other’s territorial integrity should form the basis of the peace treaty. We say that if Azerbaijan recognizes our territorial integrity based on the agreement on creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States of December 18, 1991, we shall be ready for the reciprocal recognition of the territorial integrity. This is one component of the peace treaty,” he said.
He called attention to the fact that so far there has been no signal from Azerbaijan that they are ready to sign the peace treaty on that ground.
Asked whether Armenia will recognize Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity with or without Artsakh, PM Pashinyan said “the peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be separated from the Artsakh issue.”
He said there could even be no reference to the Artsakh issue in the peace treaty.
“Armenia and Azerbaijan can and should recognize each other’s territorial integrity, while the main beneficiary of discussion of the Artsakh issue should be the people of Artsakh through its elected officials,” PM Pashinyan noted.
“We have been saying since 2018 that the Nagorno Karabakh should be the main negotiating party when it comes to the Nagorno Karabakh issue, and we continue to think so,” he added.
