The Karabakh rhetoric of Pashinyan

Baku / 05.05.18 / Turan: A spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, M. Zakharova, said that Russia intends to continue to supervise over the talks on the peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict. But we should wait until stability comes to Armenia and appointments for positions in the government of Nikol Pashinyan, she said.

The President and the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan have been tasked to await the readiness of the new Armenian government to resume the negotiation process. What proposals can N. Pashinyan offer at the talks? The answer to this question is unclear, since the leader of the Armenian revolution has repeatedly changed his convictions about the solution of the Karabakh problem.

Nikola Pashinyan is considered the "man" of the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who spoke with adequate and acceptable proposals for Baku. But since Pashinyan's close cooperation with the political camp of the first president, much time has passed. In 2013, Pashinyan was the only member of the Armenian National Congress faction (L.T. Petrosyan), who supported the bill on recognition of the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh, proposed by the Heritage faction. Representatives of different parties then opposed recognition as this step would disrupt the peaceful negotiation process within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

After the escalation of the Karabakh conflict in April 2016, Pashinyan issued a tough statement, which called into question the expediency of Armenia's compliance with the cease-fire regime. "In Karabakh, the citizens I spoke with had such an approach: at this stage, everything must be done to seriously damage Azerbaijan, so that we have guarantees that the Azerbaijani authorities, Aliyev, will not be able to get out of shock for at least a year," - quoted his words on April 6, 2016 edition of Aravot.

Pashinyan said that representatives of the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh must be present at any negotiations on the Karabakh settlement.

With these demands, he came to the April rallies he directed in Armenia. But in May, speaking in discussions with the deputies of the ruling Republican Party, Pashinyan, who earlier spoke for the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh and resolute military actions, changed his position and voiced common standard theses. So it affected his new status as a candidate for the premiere.

The Moscow portal "Caucasian Knot" singled out another Pashinyan vision of the Karabakh settlement. The conflict should be settled within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, but in an atmosphere of peace, while Azerbaijan's aggressive rhetoric impedes this, the politician said.

Speaking at the National Assembly on May 1, Nikol Pashinyan demonstrated readiness for mutual concessions on the issue of the Karabakh settlement, said political scientist Stepan Safaryan, one of the leaders of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies.

The matter is, according to Safaryan, about really mutual concessions in the conditions when Azerbaijan changes its policy and refuses territorial claims to Armenia. "Pashinyan answered the question of Republican MPs and stated that there cannot be a question of a solution to the conflict when" Aliyev put an eye on Yerevan. "He said that unilateral concessions are unacceptable for him," the political scientist said.

It should be noted that in the well-known and often mentioned statement President I. Aliyev spoke about the return of the Azerbaijanis - the inhabitants of Yerevan to their hometown, and not the seizure of the capital of Armenia.

During the discussions in the parliament, Nikol Pashinyan stated that he adheres to the positions in the Karabakh issue that are reflected in the program of the "Elk" bloc.

In this program only general wordings, there are no concrete conceptual approaches. At the discussions, Pashinyan said that as long as Azerbaijan stands with aggressive militaristic positions, Armenia must strengthen its security and there can be no talk of mutual concessions.

During Pashinyan's parliamentary speech on May 1, the former spokesman of Serzh Sargsyan asked the oppositionist to comment on the words that it is impossible to negotiate a settlement without giving Azerbaijan "liberated territories" - the areas around Nagorno-Karabakh controlled by Armenia. Pashinyan replied that these words attributed to him are disinformation. "I have published 15 screenshots of this article where there are no such words, I regret that you did not follow my refutations and are engaged in disinformation," Sputnik-Armenia quoted his words on May 1.

Safaryan believes that it is too early to judge the positions of Pashinyan and his team on the Karabakh settlement, since extraordinary parliamentary elections have not yet taken place, which the politician called his goal. Finally, the positions of the new Armenian authorities on this issue will be determined after these elections, when both the parliament and the government are formed, the political scientist believes.

"I do not think that Pashinyan will be able to make any radical changes, given the main negotiating players, but a new legitimate government will be able to demand a change in the format of the negotiation process and to attract the authorities of Nagorno Karabakh," Safarian believes.

"Different opinions were voiced, including that Karabakh should be part of Armenia, but Nikol Pashinyan said it as a private person." Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is another matter. It's quite normal when a person changes his position, depending on its status," political scientist Ruben Mehrabyan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Tofiq Zulfugarov, suggests the leadership of the country to be ready for negotiations and war simultaneously, ("if Armenians do not leave a choice, then we must fight"), without interfering with Armenians making new mistakes. It did not take long to wait, as five days ago a telephone conversation took place between Pashinyan and the US State Department, which immediately caused a sharp negative reaction in Russian society.