MUNICH (Armenpress) — On February 19, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took part in a press conference with members of the local Armenian community after participating in the Munich Security Conference. He addressed a variety of issues, including Russian inaction during the Karabakh war, Azerbaijani aggression and the state of the Armenian refugees fleeing their homes in Karabakh (Artsakh).
He blamed the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh for failing to protect the Armenians there.
“Article 9 of the 9 November 2020 trilateral statement doesn’t contain anything on any corridor through Armenia, it’s impossible to find it,” Pashinyan said, speaking about the Azeri narrative on the so-called Zangezur corridor and the 2020 ceasefire agreement. “There is nothing about some other country controlling any territory of Armenia. It is about the regional connections. You are aware that we developed and proposed the Crossroads of Peace project in order to fully present our stance. That’s our vision.”
Speaking about dangers, he said that the narrative used by Azeri leader Ilham Aliyev is a signal on present dangers.
“How should we withstand these dangers? First of all this should be managed in our international relations. What’s one of the reasons behind creating the Crossroads of Peace project? Azerbaijan was trying to create an impression that we don’t want to provide a road to anyone. What’s being talked about is that Russia is supposed to control something in our territory, and there’s no such thing in article 9, not to mention all the remaining articles of the trilateral statement which were basically torn and thrown away by Azerbaijan and Russia. Referring to article 9 is no longer relevant because both Russia and Azerbaijan have completely violated their obligations under the remaining articles, no Armenians are left in Nagorno-Karabakh today. And this is also the responsibility of the Russian peacekeeping contingent deployed in Nagorno-Karabakh, the goal of which was supposed to be the protection of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh,” Pashinyan said.
He noted that his government wouldn’t want to see the forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh leave Armenia in case they don’t have a desire or opportunity to return to their homes.
