Azerbaijan demands that Artsakh dissolve Defense Army to start negotiations
YEREVAN, July 3. /ARKA/. As a condition for starting negotiations with Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Azerbaijan demands that Artsakh dissolve its Defense Army, Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan said today.
"Azerbaijan is ready to give us natural gas and electricity, but we have to send a delegation to Baku for that. The question is: why not go to Baku? Because Baku wants to discuss only one topic with us - integration. They (the Artsakh opposition) say, 'Let's go, let's talk.' I tried, I tried for two years, if someone finds that I was a bad negotiator, it was not me who conducted negotiations lately, but they did not produce results," Harutyunyan said during a question and answer session in parliament.
Harutyunyan said that Azerbaijan is pushing this agenda not only in the meetings with Artsakh representatives, but also in the UN and in the Blinken-Mirzoyan-Bayramov talks.
"Azerbaijan is telling us: the first condition to sit at the negotiating table is to dissolve the Defense Army. Well, so go ahead - dissolve the army and start negotiations. The order (of actions) will be as follows: we dissolve the army, we dissolve the state administration system, then we create a mechanism of community elections, then we receive natural gas and electricity and we are allowed to travel by the Lachin corridor, but as citizens of Azerbaijan," he said, noting that he is not against negotiations, but 'we must understand that there will be problems, so we must improve the defense capabilities and resistance.'
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan have repeatedly stated the necessity of establishing a direct dialogue between Baku and Stepanakert with international participation.
According to the Armenian authorities, it is particularly important to ensure the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the meantime, Nagorno-Karabakh Foreign Ministry states that the continuous blockade of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, threats of using force and ethnic cleansing, holding the 120 thousand population of Artsakh as hostages are damaging the prospects of a true dialogue to discuss ways of political settlement of the Karabakh-Azerbaijan conflict. -0-
