Pashinyan offers Azerbaijan to simultaneously drop the return of Armenians to Karabakh and the ‘western Azerbaijan’ narratives
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Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has proposed to Azerbaijan that they simultaneously drop the issues of the return of Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh and the so-called ‘western Azerbaijan’ narrative.
Pashinyan made the remarks at a press briefing in Germany, reacting to the Azerbaijani foreign ministry’s criticism of the Armenia-EU strategic partnership agenda, because it mentions “Karabakh Armenians displaced following Azerbaijan’s military operation.” The Azeri criticism has been rejected by the Armenian foreign ministry.
Pashinyan emphasized that he sees a situation in which, on the one hand, Azerbaijan continues to use the so-called ‘western Azerbaijan’ narrative, and on the other hand, it complains that the wording ‘Karabakh Armenians displaced following Azerbaijan’s military operation” was included in the Armenia–EU strategic agenda document.
Pashinyan recalled that he has numerously said that the topic of the return of Armenians to Karabakh is a dangerous subject.
“Now I want to make an open and public proposal to Azerbaijan, because as much as they have problems with these topics, we have problems as well. I propose that we adopt a joint roadmap aimed at simultaneously putting these two issues to rest. I have also told our people from Karabakh that their return is not realistic. If we continue to maintain the agenda of return, it means we are once again restarting the Karabakh movement — but I have said that we must not restart the Karabakh movement. The Karabakh movement has come to an end, and attempts to revive it are not useful. But on the other hand, in Armenia we also see that Azerbaijan constantly uses the incomprehensible term ‘western Azerbaijan.’
Now it is necessary to understand what causes what — what is the cause and what is the consequence. So, I am making a direct proposal: let us sit down and develop a roadmap for how we remove this issue, because removing this issue means, from a long-term strategic perspective, eliminating any potential conflict situation,” Nikol Pashinyan said.