An Armenian government spokesman refused to give any details of the meeting when contacted by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. He said only that Pashinian “periodically” speaks with Harutiunian.
The meeting almost certainly focused on Armenia’s plans to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan which have prompted serious concern from Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian leaders. They are worried that Pashinian will thus recognize Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan.
Harutiunian’s press secretary announced on Sunday that they he and other senior Karabakh officials will travel to Armenia to seek clarification over the issue. The delegation is understood to have spent two days in Yerevan waiting for face-to-face talks with Armenia’s leaders.
The absence of an official readout or photographs of Pashinian’s meeting with Harutiunian contrasted sharply with statements on the prime minister’s other official engagements that are promptly released by the Armenian government’s press office.
The office left it to Pashinian’s Civil Contract party to post a picture of the meeting on its Facebook page.
“This suggests that Nikol Pashinian has some international obligations not to receive Artsakh’s leaders,” said Armen Baghdasarian, a Yerevan-based veteran political commentator.
“Secondly, the fact that only Arayik Harutiunian attended the meeting means that Nikol Pashinian doesn’t trust the Artsakh authorities and feared an information leak if he were to share details [of Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations] with more people.”
Harutiunian’s office also did not issue any statements on the crunch talks. Members of his delegation likewise declined to comment.
A Karabakh activist, Tigran Petrosian, quoted one of those members, parliament speaker Artur Tovmasian, as telling him on Wednesday that the Karabakh leaders are feeling like “unwelcome guests” in Yerevan.
Petrosian is one of the organizers of small-scale demonstrations that erupted in Stepanakert late last week. The protesters demanded that Harutiunian shed light on Karabakh’s uncertain future.
The Karabakh delegation was also expected to hold separate meetings with Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan. Both Simonian and Mirzoyan are key members of Pashinian’s political team.