Pashinyan Confirms Readiness to Accept Azeri Control of Karabakh, Enclave Leadership Reacts Furiously

“What rights, security and dialogue can we talk about when Azerbaijan has been illegally keeping Artsakh under complete blockade for 162 days?” countered by Artur Tovmasyan, the Karabakh parliament speaker, referring to Pashinyan asking for the enclave to directly negotiate with Azerbaijan.

Ashot Danielyan, another lawmaker allied to Arayik Harutyunyan, the Karabakh president, branded Pashinyan a “capitulator.”

Karabakh leaders have repeatedly criticized Pashinyan since he stopped invoking the Karabakh Armenians’ right to self-determination a year ago. The region’s main political factions charged in April that his current views on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict are “consistent with the position of official Baku.”

Adding his voice to those angry with Pashinyan’s statement was former Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) State Minister, Russian-Armenian billionaire Ruben Vardanyan. He said he cannot remain silent when “human values are being violated and all sanctities destroyed.”

“I don’t know how long you will remain the leader, Mr. Pashinyan, but what you say is very dangerous. You are trying to put us in the position of slaves and turn us into a worthless people, but you will not succeed,” said Vardanyan in a video message from Hakobavank.

“When we allow ourselves to say that we had thousands of defectors, without facts, when we say that Armenian women are not happy, we consider it normal to spit in a someone’s face, we allow an anti-church campaign to begin, when we can say that we have nothing to do with Artsakh, shake a finger from the podium of the National Assembly and say: ‘who are you to say anything to us?’ When you can understand that there will be thousands of victims, but the war will not be stopped, and this becomes the standard. We are betraying the motherland, our roots, values. That is the biggest danger.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, had declared that there were 11,000 deserters during the 44-day war. The National Security Service did not confirm that number.

In a related story, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan presented details from the Washington negotiations. Mirzoyan, during a press conference on May 22, said that some progress was made in the negotiations in Washington in the sense that it was possible to agree on two more articles of the draft peace treaty.

“I can say that during these conversations, the parties understood each other’s concerns, intentions and ideas very well. Apart from the two articles I mentioned, I think there is a possibility of agreement regarding the other articles as well. This is not only my assessment, I was assured by other parties as well.

“Of course, there are articles and topics where the positions of the parties are quite far from each other. These are the articles that deal with the most difficult issues. But there was also quite an effective discussion in this direction,” said Mirzoyan.

He also reaffirmed Armenia’s commitment to establishing a long-lasting, stable and dignified peace in the South Caucasus.

“Armenia cannot take constructive steps alone,” said Mirzoyan.

(Stories from Azatutyun, Armenpress and PanArmenian.net contributed to this report.)