The President of the Republic of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, said in an interview with Artsakh Public TV, adding that these were the reasons why the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020 was born.
Azerbaijan aims at keeping Artsakh people as hostages and carry out genocide putting pressure on the authorities of Armenia and international actors. President Harutyunyan
STEPANAKERT, AUGUST 6, ARTSAKHPRESS: The war of 2020, unfortunately, was a different reality, because Turkey participated with Azerbaijan, thousands of mercenaries, supported by a number of other states with technologies, etc., and Artsakh, of course, was together with Armenia, but the main burden was brought to itself.
At first it was not accepted; but based on the results of the war, it was an acceptable statement for us, and it gave us hope that having the guarantees that are available: a territory in the form of Nagorno-Karabakh, a line of contact, an uninterrupted connection with Armenia. It was the fulcrum which was to ensure further our struggle for the right to self-determination. What changed? Initially, we trusted and started to restore the consequences of the war, started to restore the economy. Most of our compatriots returned," said Harutyunyan.
Then President Harutyunyan continued by recalling that the statements during the many meetings between the Prime Minister of Armenia and the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia, at the initial phase, seemed to show that everything was being done to fulfill the points that were specified or the guarantees that were given.
According to Harutyunyan, the situation changed after the Russian-Ukrainian war.
"Azerbaijan, taking advantage of Russia's situation, was trying to force us to give up, so to speak, the points of the statement, the rights given to us, and enter into dialogue with their proposed agenda. After that, we sent many requests, letters, first of all to the head of Russia, the prime minister of Armenia, all international player; and what is happening today, we warned about it a year ago. A year ago, we were talking about Azerbaijan starting a genocidal policy," the Artsakh Republic President said.
According to him, Azerbaijan wants to abandon the tripartite statement and continue the war.
"This is already a war, a continuation of the war through the siege, and then, as a result, turning Artsakh into a large concentration camp, carrying out genocide," Harutyunyan stressed.
He quoted the statement by the president of Azerbaijan, which he made before the tripartite meeting in Brussels, during the meeting with the Secretary General of NATO, declaring that the “Zangezur corridor,” according to his wording, should work within the logic of the Lachin corridor.
"We did not pay attention to it in the first phase. We thought that it was a statement to put pressure on the Armenia’s authorities, getting the most out of point 9 of the tripartite statement, which refers to the opening of regional communications, especially since it was mentioned about Nakhichevan and the connection with Azerbaijan. But Azerbaijan was underscoring it with its future behavior, policy conducted," said Harutyunyan.
"I can also announce today that Azerbaijan continues its pressure to extract the maximum. We must note that Azerbaijan wants to keep the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh as hostages, while carrying out genocide and putting pressure on the authorities of Armenia and international actors to have a more favorable version of the Zangezur road," elaborated President Harutyunyan.
