The issue of the security and rights of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh must be addressed, and the primary stakeholder in the issue must be the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, and that issue must be considered through international mechanisms within the Baku-Stepanakert framework, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared at a March 14 press conference.
“We have said and we say that the issue of the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh is extremely important to us, it is one of our core goals. Our understanding is that it would be right for the pursuer of that issue, the primary mandate-holder, as is the case in reality, to be the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. There are both objective and subjective reasons for this position. We believe that this dialogue should take place between Baku and Stepanakert,” the Prime Minister said.
He added that the processes lead to the conclusion that here too, moving forward without international mechanisms and guarantees is not possible.
According to Pashinyan, the framework of the rights and security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh must be determined by the people and government of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In response to a question about the “visible international mechanism” voiced by the authorities, Pashinyan noted that the mechanism is necessary to guarantee the “continuity of dialogue” with Azerbaijan, since over time “security and rights became integration.” He reiterated that they “do not intend to give Azerbaijan a mandate for ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
