Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Wednesday accused Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders of spreading false claims about significant territorial concessions to Azerbaijan planned by his government.
Pashinian effectively pointed the finger at the authorities in Stepanakert when he was asked to elaborate on his recent allegations that “specific forces representing the former corrupt system” are intent on provoking a war with Azerbaijan, losing “some territories” and blaming that defeat on Armenia’s current leadership.
“I held several meetings with the military-political leaderships of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and Armenia, presented my vision for the Karabakh conflict’s resolution and wondered whether or not they agree with my vision,” Pashinian told reporters. “It turned out that everyone agrees with it.”
However, he went on, “people who sat at that table” subsequently alleged through their aides that “Pashinian is selling out lands.” “This raises the question of why they are doing that,” he said.
Pashinian declined to name names. He also claimed that unlike his administration, Armenia’s former government never presented details of its negotiations with Azerbaijan to the Karabakh Armenian leadership.
“It was me who passed documents regarding the Karabakh negotiation process on to the Karabakh authorities,” he said. “They did not know what had been negotiated before me.”
Bako Sahakian, the Karabakh president, denied Pashinian’s claims in an interview with the Artsakhpress news agency published later in the day. He insisted that successive Armenian governments have always “informed the leadership of Artsakh (Karabakh) about discussed issues and latest developments.”
Commenting on the alleged “treasonous” conspiracy against Pashinian, Sahakian said: “One of our most important achievements is our unity, and I find inadmissible any step aimed at undermining it, whether it’s taken in Artsakh, Armenia or the Diaspora. I find any conspiracy-oriented behavior unacceptable.”
“If there are suspicions, distrust towards a particular practice, individual or official, it is important and necessary to discuss those issues and reach a common denominator in an atmosphere of mutual respect,” added the Karabakh leader.
Visiting Yerevan on May 20, Sahakian insisted that he is unaware of the existence of anti-government forces mentioned by Pashinian.
Pashinian first alleged such a conspiracy following bitter recriminations which were traded by his spokesman Vladimir Karapetian and the secretary of Sahakian’s national security council, retired General Vitaly Balasanian. The latter criticized the authorities in Yerevan for not heeding Karabakh leaders’ calls for the release of Robert Kocharian, Armenia’s Karabakh-born former president facing coup charges.
Pashinian most recently visited Stepanakert on May 9 to attend, together with Sahakian, official celebrations of Karabakh’s main public holiday. “If some people try to turn Artsakh (Karabakh) into a hotbed of counterrevolution, the people of Artsakh will turn it into a hotbed of revolution,” the prime minister wrote on Facebook on his return to Yerevan.
It is not clear whether Pashinian warned Balasanian or former President Serzh Sarkisian. The latter was also in Karabakh in early May, making joint public appearances with Sahakian, Balasanian and other local officials.
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