Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has not significantly changed Armenia’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a senior Armenian official insisted on Monday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ruben Rubinian said there are “no big differences” between the new and former Armenian governments’ views on how to end the long-running dispute with Azerbaijan. In that regard, he downplayed Pashinian’s calls for Karabakh representatives’ direct involvement in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament last week, the premier again said that he has no mandate to “negotiate on behalf of the Karabakh people.” The Armenian premier said at the same time that he is “ready to negotiate Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.”
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry denounced Pashinian’s remarks and reiterated that it will not directly negotiate with the Karabakh Armenians.
Rubinian, who is a senior member of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, insisted that Yerevan is not setting any preconditions for renewed talks with Baku. “Pashinian did not say that he won’t be negotiating on behalf of Nagorno-Karabakh,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “He simply made arguments in support of our view that in order to increase the effectiveness of negotiations Artsakh (Karabakh) needs to be involved in them.”
Rubinian stressed that Yerevan is keen to “maintain the dynamic” of the negotiation process. “Mr. Pashinian has repeatedly said that he is ready to meet and negotiate with [Azerbaijani President] Ilham Aliyev,” he said.
Both leaders have been invited by Russian President Vladimir Putin due to visit Moscow next week to watch matches of the 2018 football World Cup hosted by Russia. A spokesman for Putin said on Monday he will hold fresh talks with the Armenian leader.
Rubinian said that “as of now” there are no plans to organize Pashinian’s first meeting with Aliyev.
Pashinian has yet to publicly clarify his view on a framework Karabakh peace accord that has been advanced by U.S., Russian and French mediators for more than a decade. It calls for a phased settlement that would start with the liberation of virtually all seven districts around Karabakh which were fully or partly occupied by Karabakh Armenian forces during the 1991-1994 war. In return, Karabakh’s predominantly ethnic Armenian population would determine the territory’s internationally recognized status in a future referendum.
The former Armenian government headed by Serzh Sarkisian said all along that this peace formula is largely acceptable to it.