Armenian opposition to take to streets after PM's remarks

The Armenian opposition will take to the streets to protest Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s remarks about recognising Azerbaijan's territorial integrity,  including Karabakh and some enclaves.

The statement came from MP and member of ultranationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun Ishkhan Saghatelyan, TASS reports.

Saghatelyan recalled that a trilateral meeting will be held in Moscow on May 25 with the participation of Pashinyan, as well as the Azerbaijani and Russian presidents, and then negotiations will take place in Chisinau and Brussels.

"And in October he will try to sign the surrender. To prevent this, we have five to six months. We are planning protests and actions of disobedience," Saghatelyan said.

At a press conference on May 22, Pashinyan stated that the territory of Azerbaijan within 86,600 square kilometres, which Armenia recognises, includes both Karabakh and the enclaves of Azerbaijan.

After a trilateral meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, EU Council President Charles Michel and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Brussels on May 14, Michel stressed that both sides recognised each other’s territorial integrity on the basis of the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration.

Michel’s statement explicitly specified the square kilometre area of both countries. This means Armenia has officially recognised the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast as part of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s enclaves are the Gazakh district's Baghanis-Ayrim, Ashaghi Askipara and Yukhari Askipara, Barkhudarli, Sofulu villages and Nakhchivan's Karki village.

Armenians occupied these settlements as a result of hostilities in the early 1990s, during the first Karabakh war.