Pashinyan Says His Government to “Initiate Discussion” to Dissolve OSCE Minsk Group

Pashinyan suggested that the referendum might be held together with the regular parliamentary election in 2026.

“Therefore, turning to the question of whether Azerbaijan can put forward new demands, returning to the peace agenda, yes, Azerbaijan can bring new issues and questions to the agenda, but it does not mean that all these issues are questions of discussion for us.”

‘Disguise the Real News’

Pashinyan was also asked about Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s recent remark, “that the level of trust to Armenia is close to zero.”

In light of the lack of trust, Aliyev said “we need documents; we need papers,” from Armenia in order to demonstrate that the efforts towards the peace treaty are genuine.

Pashinyan also admitted the lack of trust, noting that “if there were no trust issues, then there would be two options — either the peace treaty would have long ago been signed or there would be no need for a peace treaty.”

He further noted that a provision in the agreed peace treaty is “on confidence building measures.”

Pashinyan was asked to comment on the recent series of Azerbaijani accusations that Armenia has been violating the ceasefire, which follow the announcement that both sides declared they had reached an agreement on the text of the peace treaty.

According to Pashinyan’s interpretation of these events, the “dissemination of news with the escalation logic, I think one of its goals is to disguise the real news under the flow of such news, and the real news is that the text of the peace treaty has been agreed upon and is waiting for being signed and therefore it must be signed.”

Pashinyan also said that “escalation in our region has no justification.”

Concessions with no Guarantees

Pashinyan did not agree with his critics” comments that his government was engaged in making a list of concessions to Azerbaijan. Instead he claimed that currently, Armenia is “a much more independent and sovereign state.”

“During all those periods of what people call periods of non-concessions, including during my term as Prime Minister, during that whole period we had conceded the most important thing we have, our sovereignty, our independence, and our statehood.”

Despite his government’s previous stance, that the peace process needed a guarantor, during the interview on Friday Pashinyan suggested the opposite.

“There is one guarantee of Armenia’s security and it is […] Armenia itself” and that “there is no more effective tool to guarantee security than peace.”

“There simply is no such tool,” Pashinyan said.

He suggested that it was a lesson learnt from history, referencing that, “in September 2022, when Azerbaijan attacked Armenia, Armenia had a guarantor.”

“Then what happened?,” Pashinyan said, referring to the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s lack of support.