Armenian media: Pashinyan pushing Russia out of region

MPs of the Armenian Civil Contract faction met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and held a more than three-hour discussion after a long break on September 27.

Remarkably, MPs were "notified" of the meeting less than five minutes before the meeting, to avoid possible leaks and their consequences, Caliber.Az reports, citing Hraparak.

"Nikol Pashinyan went to the parliament around 19:00, most of the members of the State Duma, who were ordered to stay in Yerevan a few days ago, showed up to the meeting almost as one person, they were specifically warned against leaking information to the press. Nevertheless, we managed to learn some details.

Pashinyan spoke about what happened in Garabagh, stating that he instructed the state bodies to organise not only the fastest and unhindered resettlement of the citizens of Garabagh, but also the issues of providing them with work, stressing that it was decided not to resettle them in Yerevan under any circumstances.

He shared his impressions that the Russians will try to keep a certain number of people in Garabagh to continue their activities while noting that this is no longer Armenia's problem, let the Russians solve their problems with Azerbaijan. Then he talked for a long time about the meeting on October 5.

It is known that Pashinyan and Aliyev are scheduled to meet at the EU summit, which will be held this day in Granada, Spain, attended by EU Council President Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. It can be said that teammates were surprised that we are now close to signing the long-awaited ‘peace agreement’, and the foundations for signing this document should be laid at the meeting on October 5.

According to the information, a statement will be adopted in Granada, in which the sequence of steps will be recorded point by point: delimitation, recognition of each other's territorial integrity, etc. Nikol Pashinyan almost openly stated that Armenia is ousting Russia from the region, and the actual start of the process will also be announced at the meeting on October 5. Pashinyan explained that after the loss of Garabagh, the statement of November 9 also lost its force, thereby ending the role of the Russian side.

In addition, despite adopting a political course to push Russia out of Armenia, Pashinyan urged his teammates to be more cautious and calmer, avoiding direct statements to Russia that could lead to irreversible consequences for their government.

According to Pashinyan, one can talk about it through the media and fake pages, but not directly. The issues of withdrawal from the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization], the further fate of Russian peacekeeping troops in some border regions of Armenia were raised, but Pashinyan was not inclined to put them on the agenda, he rudely made it clear that he would not talk about them.

He emphasised that the Rome Statute should also be ratified and advised him to pay attention to his statements on this issue made in recent days and to stick to this line in his speeches. He tried not to discuss his possible resignation as much as possible, on the contrary, he kept quite confident, sometimes joking to calm the team and give them confidence in him," the newspaper said.