Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has reaffirmed his readiness to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and addressed the issue of returning prisoners and maps of mined areas. The head of government made this statement during a meeting with representatives of the Armenian community in Vilnius, in response to a question from one of those present.
“You see, the President of Azerbaijan has declared that he is ready to meet with me. Let me say that I declared back in July that we are ready to meet at both high and highest levels, that is, in translation, this means we are ready to meet at the level of foreign ministers and at the prime minister-president level. In my recent speech at the UN General Assembly, I stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue awaits its resolution, and I can say that we have already welcomed the statements of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs several times, in which they repeatedly record the need to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and restore the peace process for this purpose,” said Nikol Pashinyan.
In this context, the Prime Minister noted that as previously, so now he declares that he is ready to meet with the President of Azerbaijan. “At the anticipated upcoming meeting, I am ready to take with me the maps that are being discussed, and the discussion concerns the maps that do not separate the armed forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan, that is, they have no military practical security significance, but have only humanitarian significance, because they are located in the rear of the Azerbaijani armed forces.
I am ready to take all the maps we have with me and call on the President of Azerbaijan to bring back all our prisoners.”
The Prime Minister added: “The President of Azerbaijan complains that the quality of those maps we previously handed over is not good. You see, we make two recordings: first, we gave the maps we have, that is, it is not that we kept the good-quality maps in a drawer and gave the poor-quality ones. I do not rule out, and I also know, that there is a problem related to the quality of the maps, why, because the quality of a map depends on the quality of the cartographer, his professional skill, whatever he mapped, that is what we have. And here we are sincere, we are open, and we have no intention of deceiving anyone, because here the talk is not only about Azerbaijan, but also about our mediating partners, who are our friendly countries, our partners. This would not be honourable, simply in that situation to attempt to do something else differently.
We gave the maps we have; we simply do not have other maps, I mean, with regard to the terrain already handed over, we simply do not have other maps. And this is a fact, and this must be recorded as a reality. As for trust, it is clear that in this situation Azerbaijan does not trust us, we do not trust Azerbaijan, and the whole problem is to try to move forward with small steps so that at least some trust is formed. Why is that trust important, so that we can, yes, also resolve humanitarian issues more quickly and return our captive brothers to their families as soon as possible,” noted Prime Minister Pashinyan.
