“The vote to be held on Sunday is not simply a process of forming a parliament and government,” said acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the rally held on 17 June.
According to Pashinyan, the moment of truth has already arrived, the moment of truth for the citizen of the Republic of Armenia. “These elections have created an exceptional opportunity for the citizen of the Republic of Armenia to have his say to the organisers of the 27 October terrorist act, to the murderers of 1 March, to the electoral fraudsters who for many years deprived the citizen of the Republic of Armenia of the right to vote. Today, some, in order to keep their teammates by their side, say: calm down, everything is decided. As if the so-called elites have decided what will happen and what the election results will be. Those people do not understand that their train of electoral fraud left long ago. Those distributing electoral bribes in Armenia are being arrested at this very moment and are being detained. The more active they become, the larger the packages with which they will be arrested and detained,” declared Pashinyan.
At the rally, Pashinyan also said that the Armenian side does not link the issues of delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border with the Karabakh issue. “With regard to the resolution of the Karabakh issue, we fully accept the logic put forward in the statements of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. Namely, that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is not settled and awaits a comprehensive and complete solution. Our vision of the settlement of the issue remains the same. And in our conviction, the 44-day war has further strengthened the context of the self-determination of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh under the logic of ‘secession for the sake of survival’, because it is evident that Armenophobia in Azerbaijan is not only remaining state policy but is becoming even more pronounced, particularly through examples such as the shameful ‘trophy’ park opened in Baku,” declared Pashinyan. He noted that the Armenian side must consistently draw the attention of the international community to these and similar facts, emphasising that ‘secession for the sake of survival’ is the only possibility for an objective and real settlement of the issue.
According to Pashinyan, the axis of Armenia’s security is, of course, the Armenian-Russian strategic allied relations. “In terms of regional security, I want to particularly emphasise the need to deepen our cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran and the launch of a strategic dialogue. I consider the full re-engagement of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in regional security affairs to be a most important guarantee. And recently we saw a very good example of the practical effectiveness of this thesis. The primary factor in ensuring our country’s security, however, is the successful course of reforms of our armed forces and army,” he said.
One of the programme provisions of the “Civil Contract” party is to ensure Armenia’s railway communication with the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran and thus the whole world, said acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
“Moreover, again and again I want to emphasise that in this context our government has not discussed, is not discussing and will not discuss any corridor logic. That is, in the context of opening communications, we completely rule out any change in the status of any sovereign territory of Armenia,” he declared.
According to Pashinyan, the statements coming from Azerbaijan and Turkey about obtaining a corridor through Armenia’s territory are nonsense. “We have expressed our position very clearly: the region’s economic communications must be unblocked. And in this sense, transit and communication routes will be received by the countries evenly and proportionally, just as described in the Moscow statement of 11 January 2021. And Armenia is committed to consistently moving forward to bring the provisions of this statement to life. And this will be a strategic achievement not only for Armenia but for the entire region, opening wide doors for peace, stability and long-term development,” added Pashinyan.
According to Pashinyan, today this prospect is hindered by the aggressive statements coming from Azerbaijan, its destructive position, particularly the fact that Azerbaijan continues to show aspirations against the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia and does not fulfil its internationally undertaken obligations, particularly regarding the return of our prisoners.
“Nevertheless, the return of our 15 prisoners, which took place a few days ago, inspires hope that in the near future we will have a significant change in the regional atmosphere. There is no doubt that all our captive brothers will return to the homeland very soon. But it is important that in humanitarian matters events take place as quickly as possible, sooner rather than later, without inhumane bargaining. And Armenia expresses its readiness to move forward with such steps,” noted Pashinyan.
