Armenia washed hands of Nagorno-Karabakh- ex-president Kocharyan says
Ex-president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan has accused today the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of ‘washing hands’ of Nagorno-Karabakh either out of incomprehension or intentionally acting on a plan designed by the "puppeteers.'-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
YEREVAN, December 27. /ARKA/. Ex-president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan has accused today the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of ‘washing hands’ of Nagorno-Karabakh either out of incomprehension or intentionally acting on a plan designed by the "puppeteers.'
Kocharyan who is head of the opposition Hayastan (Armenia) alliance that has the second-largest number of seats in the parliament, told a news conference today that "the uncertainty over Nagorno-Karabakh's security and its future has remained the same during this year,’ but there is no uncertainty now regarding the Armenian authorities’ position on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."
“If Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says that since 2016 there has been no even a theoretical possibility for Nagorno-Karabakh's status outside of Azerbaijan, this is essentially Armenia's position now," Kocharyan said.
"This means that Armenia has washed its hands of Nagorno-Karabakh. And with his latest statements Pashinyan has put into question the outcome of the September 2, 1991 referendum in Nagorno-Karabakh, when the majority of population voted for independence from Azerbaijan.
"They (the authorities) either do not realize what they are doing, or they do so being programmed, and are implementing a 'puppet master program' in Armenia," he said.
The former president said the outgoing year in terms of Armenia's security is a perfect failure, as not a single issue was resolved, including loss of control over some Armenian territories: the authorities also acknowledged that over 40 square kilometers of Armenia’s sovereign territory is under Azerbaijani control, but in fact much larger territories are out of our control,’ according to Kocharyan.
According to the former president, the determination of the borders by means of GPS led to the fact that the Azerbaijani troops were positioned on their assumed borderline, while the Armenian side was forced to move back by 0.5-1 km. He also said that nothing was done to raise the combat efficiency of the army and restore the lost armament.
In a December 24 online news conference Pashinyan argued that during the Karabakh negotiations " not a single representative of the Armenian authorities challenged the rights of the Azerbaijanis living in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region that was part of the Soviet Azerbaijan.’
"During the negotiations Nagorno-Karabakh has never been regarded as an exclusively Armenian formation, because Azerbaijanis also lived there, at least it is recorded in the negotiations (and they were supposed to take part in a referendum of Karabakh status). And the protection of their rights was a subject of negotiations,’ Pashinyan said.
On September 27, 2020, Azerbaijani armed forces, backed by Turkey and foreign mercenaries and terrorists, attacked Nagorno-Karabakh along the entire front line using rocket and artillery weapons, heavy armored vehicles, military aircraft and prohibited types of weapons such as cluster bombs and phosphorus weapons.
After 44 days of the war, on November 9, the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a statement on the cessation of all hostilities. According to the document, the town of Shushi, the districts of Agdam, Kelbajar and Lachin were handed over to Azerbaijan, with the exception of a 5-kilometer corridor connecting Karabakh with Armenia.
A Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed along the contact line in Karabakh and along the Lachin corridor. -0