Artsakh thankful to Armenia’s PM for attempts to return it to the table of negotiations: Artsakh MP

The statement of the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs is not a novelty for the chairman of the foreign relations standing committee of Artsakh parliament Arzik Mkhitaryan.

“Minsk group co-chairs very often make such surprises. This time in particular. The statement they made before Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting was not a novelty and we are always ready to hear about the three principles,” the Artsakh MP told Aysor.am correspondent.

Nevertheless, Mkhitaryan stressed that the statement contains some concerning elements, in particular, the foreign diplomats reject Pashinyan’s proposal to return Artsakh to the table of negotiations.

“They stubbornly reject Pashinyan’s wish for Artsakh to return to the table of negotiations. Of course this is a message that Artsakh is not accepted by the Minsk Group co-chairs as a negotiating side. This comes from Azerbaijan: this country rejects each proposal. But I have no doubts that Armenia, Azerbaijan and Artsakh are interested in the peaceful resolution of the conflict. I do not think any country wants war especially those who passed through it and saw its brutalities,” the Artsakh MP said.

As to the territories for peace thesis circulated recently, Mkhitaryan said that they are not aware about the existence of such document. Moreover, it is unacceptable for the people of Artsakh as Artsakh is not the war provoker.

“We were imposed war by Azerbaijan. We have not occupied territories. These territories are our security zones and to say that Artsakh must gift territory to Azerbaijan for peace is not an acceptable variant,” the Artsakh MP said.

As to whether Pashinyan’s wish to change the format of negotiations was not hasty, the MP said, “On the contrary, don’t think that it is a new thing. For years, when we were not participating in the negotiations, we have always been stressing that there cannot be a decision over a fate of people without their participation. We were demanding it for quite long. We are grateful to Mr Pashinyan for making this issue actual and stresses always that he is not authorized to make decision instead of Artsakh. I think that we have passed this authority to Armenia as we are unrecognized state and do not have the tools to be presented to the world. We authorize Armenia to negotiate on our behalf being convinced that to-be made decisions will be in Armenia’s favor,” the Artsakh MP said.