What is behind Pashinyan's desire to involve the Karabakh Armenians in the negotiation process?

Baku / 07.06.18 / Turan: Negotiations on the Karabakh issue cannot be considered full-fledged and effective without participation of the full-fledged side of the conflict - the Armenians of Karabakh, stated on June 7 the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan speaking at the session of the Armenian parliament.

"The participation of Karabakh in the negotiations was approved at the OSCE summit in Budapest in 1994. After 1998, the representatives of Armenia held talks and on behalf of Karabakh: whether they acted correctly or not - another question.

Robert Kocharian (second president of Armenia) was previously the president of Karabakh, and Serzh Sargsyan (the third president of Armenia) is one of the organizers of self-defense of Karabakh. Consequently, they could have a mandate to negotiate.

Even with a strong desire, I cannot assign myself the mandate to conduct negotiations on behalf of the people of Karabakh. There is no legal, political or moral justification for this," Pashinyan said.

Arguments of the Azerbaijani side that the Azerbaijani community of Karabakh should participate in the negotiations, Pashinyan called unfounded, since before and after the Karabakh conflict they were and remained citizens of Azerbaijan.

"This means that the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, is also negotiating on their behalf, as they participated in the elections. And the residents of Karabakh did not elect the power of Armenia, and the Armenian authorities can not represent them. They should have their own voice," Pashinyan said. At the same time, he added that he is ready to negotiate with Aliyev within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

This topic was raised today in Moscow at a joint press conference of the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Armenia. The decision on the participation of Nagorno-Karabakh in the negotiations on the settlement of the conflict in this region should be agreed upon between Yerevan and Baku, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"The position of Moscow has remained unchanged: it has always been the position of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue through the OSCE Minsk Group, which Armenia is also a participant in along with Azerbaijan and other states." We are convinced that this is the optimal format, "he said.

Lavrov noted that all agreements on changing the format of negotiations are reached through agreements between Yerevan and Baku.

"If the parties agree at some stage that Nagorno Karabakh will be again represented at the talks, this will be their decision, and we will respect this decision," the minister said. Official Baku reacted to today's statements of Pashinyan, calling it "unconstructive." "We regard such statements of the Armenian leadership as an unconstructive step aimed at violating the negotiation process and maintaining the status quo based on the occupation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev.

The presence of the Armenian armed forces in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and the continuation of the occupation directly determines the international legal responsibility of Armenia as a participant in the conflict. "If the Armenian leadership is concerned about the fact that the agreements reached only on paper, it must implement the relevant decisions of the UN Security Council, which require immediate and unconditional release of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," Hajiyev said.

"Armenia must understand that Azerbaijan has already made a big concession by conducting 25 years of negotiations with the country that occupied our territories," he said.

Yerevan's refusal to negotiate a settlement, indirectly, may mean a desire to push the Karabakh Armenians to compromise with Baku. At the same time, the rejection of a compromise will mean that all responsibility for the further events will fall on the Karabakh Armenians, not on Yerevan. -02D-