Pashinyan: No country denies recognising Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that Armenia has always recognised the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

“There is not and has never been a country in the world that would not recognise Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan,” Pashinyan said at a press conference when asked why in 2019 he was declaring that "Karabakh is Armenia and that's it" if Karabakh was eventually recognised as part of Azerbaijan, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

When asked to comment on the opposition movement against the recognition of Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, Pashinyan replied that he would refrain from assessments. At the same time, the following should be noted: there are opinions that Armenia should live in a confrontation mode for the next 30 years. People calling Armenia to live in constant confrontation are questioning its very existence.

"I don't want to assess anyone's wishes or opinions. The intentions may be good, constructive, but we are talking about possible consequences," the prime minister said.

The allegations against him after the 2020 war include the question of why he didn't talk about it in 2018 and 2019.

"As a person who has learned a lesson from his mistakes, as an official with obligations, I can say: if anyone says that Armenia should live in a confrontational mode, he is essentially questioning the very existence of the state. I am not saying that this is what these people want, but the consequences will be like this," Pashinyan added.

According to him, during the 2020 war, when Armenia almost miraculously saved its statehood, it was also under attack, but to live according to such logic means dooming the country to ruin.

Pashinyan also urged to stop in any situation "resorting to the genre of 'letter to the Russian Tsar'" when solving state problems.

It is not always right and fair to turn to Moscow, Washington, or Brussels to solve problems, he said at a press conference in Yerevan, commenting on various claims to world centres.

According to him, it is necessary to clearly define the zone of one's own responsibility.

"There are very honest accents in Moscow's position. If you translate it from diplomatic language, they say: you are a country with 30 years of independence, how many times can you appeal to Moscow on various issues? But we are used to doing it. We even have such a 'genre' as 'letter to the Russian Tsar', and how long can we live like this?" the Armenian leader asked the head of the Armenian Cabinet rhetorically.

Continuing the theme, Pashinyan said that the heads of the illegal regime in Khankandi had made a "significant contribution" to the formation of this "genre".

He added that Moscow itself has problems today, but it and other countries are not redirecting them to anyone.

At the same time, he is convinced that the world centres want to help the parties to the Karabakh conflict.

"We, as an independent state, should take the next step towards maturing, realising that our problems should be solved first of all by ourselves," the prime minister said, adding that he considered some provisions of the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement to be fair.