Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday, 17 October spoke to the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg addressing important issues of Armenia-EU relations, peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and South Caucasus regional co-operation.
commonspace.eu political editor said in a comment that this was one of Pashinyan's most important speeches since he took office as leader of Armenia in 2018. Throughout his speech Pashinyan made reference to "common values" and to "democracy", saying that for Armenia this was a strategic choice, and not a choice dictated by circumstances. Pashinyan said that "Armenia is ready to be closer to the European Union, as much as the European Union considers it possible."
But Pashinyan focused most in his speech on peace in the South Caucasus and Armenia-Azerbaijan relations. He spoke in detail about the issues under consideration, stating
we are ready to sign a peace and relations settlement agreement with Azerbaijan by the end of the year.
Prime Minister Pashinyan said:
Despite all wars, complications, crises, I came to the European Parliament with the following main message. Our region, the South Caucasus, needs peace, that is, a state where all the countries of the region live with open borders, are connected by active economic, political and cultural ties, and have accumulated experience and tradition of solving all issues diplomatically and through dialogue. I especially want to emphasize that we do not oppose our ideas about peace in any way to the interests of our region, because our country can be peaceful if the region is peaceful. And I consider supporting peace building to be my main political commitment.
It is not easy to undertake such a commitment, considering the long-term conflict with Azerbaijan, numerous victims, missing people, prisoners, suffering and despair.
But is peace possible and if so, how? At the beginning of October, before the European Political Community Summit in Granada, we had a serious opportunity to make a breakthrough in the peace process, but the President of Azerbaijan, unfortunately, refused to come to the European Political Community Summit and to accept a joint statement with the President of the EU Council, the President of France, the German Chancellor and me. expressed the principles of establishing peace and relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Those principles and content are not new at all and were formed by the results of the quadrilateral meeting held in Prague on October 6, 2022, in which the President of France, the President of the EU Council, the President of Azerbaijan and I participated.
Those principles were concretized in 2023 during the meetings of the President of the EU Council, the President of Azerbaijan and myself in Brussels, and there are public statements about those principles.
The first of the principles is expressed in the Granada Quadripartite Declaration as follows, I quote: "The President of France, the President of the EU, the Chancellor of Germany and I. They remain committed to all efforts aimed at normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, based on the mutual recognition of each other's sovereignty, border inviolability and territorial integrity of Armenia's 29,800 square km and Azerbaijan's 86,600 square km, as stated in President Michel's statements of May 14 and July 15, 2023. They called for strict observance of the principle of non-use of force and threat of force" (end of quote).
This same principle is expressed in the statement of the EU Council President Charles Michel following the trilateral meeting held in Brussels on May 14 with the participation of the President of the EU Council, the President of Azerbaijan and myself. "The leaders, we are talking about myself and the President of Azerbaijan, confirmed their unequivocal commitment to the 1991 Almaty Declaration and to the territorial integrity of Armenia's 29,800 square kilometers and Azerbaijan's 86,600 square kilometers, respectively (end of quote).
The same principle was expressed by EU Council President Charles Michel in his statement following the results of the tripartite meeting held in Brussels on July 15 with the participation of the President of the EU Council, the President of Azerbaijan and myself (I quote): "The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan once again fully reaffirmed their respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the other country, based on the understanding that the territory of Armenia is 29 thousand 800 square kilometers, the territory of Azerbaijan is 86 thousand 600 square kilometers" (end of quote).
Dear attendees, what you need to know additionally on this occasion is the following. after these agreements, I publicly reaffirmed several times that the Republic of Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity of 86 thousand 600 square kilometers of Azerbaijan, but the President of Azerbaijan did not make such a statement. Recently, he announced that he recognizes the territorial integrity of Armenia, but did not mention the 29,800, which causes some analysts to fear that he is leaving special ambiguities to advance territorial claims against Armenia. The agreement to recognize territorial integrity with concrete numbers was reached precisely so that neither Armenia nor Azerbaijan would allow ambiguities when recognizing each other's territorial integrity, say, for example, by saying that part of the territory of the given country does not actually belong to it.
The next principle of peace and regulation of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is expressed in the Granada Declaration as follows (I quote): "They emphasized the urgent need to work towards the demarcation of the borders, based on the latest maps of the USSR General Staff provided to the parties, which should also be the basis for the withdrawal of forces, the finalization of the peace agreement and the solution of all humanitarian problems" (end of quote).
Charles Michel expressed this principle in his statement following the results of the tripartite meeting held in Brussels on July 15 with the participation of the President of the EU Council, the President of Azerbaijan and myself (I quote): "The two leaders reaffirmed unequivocal commitment to the 1991 Almaty Declaration as a political framework for border delimitation" (end quote).
This same principle was recorded in the results of the quadrilateral meeting in Prague on October 6, 2022 as follows (I quote): "Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed their commitment to the UN Charter and 1991 Almaty Declaration, through which both sides recognize each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. They confirmed that this would form the basis for the work of the demarcation commissions" (end quote).
You should know the following additional information about this principle. The Declaration of Almaty was signed by the 12 republics of the Soviet Union on December 21, 1991. That declaration made the following two important records in the context of the discussed issue.
1. The Soviet Union ceases to exist.
2. The republics recognize each other's territorial integrity, sovereignty, the inviolability of the existing, i.e. administrative borders, and therefore the existing administrative borders between the republics of the Soviet Union become state borders.
Azerbaijan declares that there is no border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which contradicts the Almaty Declaration and the above-mentioned agreements. Azerbaijan also maintains ambiguities in accepting the latest maps of the Soviet Union as a basis for delimitation, which also gives some experts a reason to assume that Azerbaijan is creating grounds for making territorial claims against Armenia and initiating a new military aggression.
Dear attendees,
The next principle of peace and normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan is expressed in the following way (I quote): "They also called for the full respect of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the countries, as well as the opening of regional ties based on the principles of equality and reciprocity" (end of quote).
This principle was expressed by EU Council President Charles Michel in his statement as follows (I quote): "We (that is, the President of the EU Council, the President of Azerbaijan and I) discussed the arrangements for future transport agreements that will respect the principle of sovereignty, jurisdiction and reciprocity" (end of quote).
You need to know the following additional information about this principle. Azerbaijan continuously insists that Armenia is obliged to give Azerbaijan a corridor through its own territory. Corridor, in the vocabulary you are familiar with in everyday international speech, simply means interstate roads. But there is a peculiarity in the case of our region. In the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, the word "corridor" is used only in the case of the Lachin Corridor, which was supposed to provide the connection between Nagorno Karabakh and Armenia. The peculiarity is that according to that document, the Lachin Corridor is not only a road, but also a 5-kilometer-wide territorial layer, which should have been outside the control of Azerbaijan, under the control of peacekeepers. Therefore, in this context, the word corridor has the meaning of extraterritorial layer.
The Republic of Armenia has never, anywhere, agreed to any limitation of its sovereignty and jurisdiction over any of its territories, has not made such a promise. Therefore, what does the principle quoted above mean?
It means one simple thing. On the basis of their sovereignty and jurisdiction, Armenia and Azerbaijan should open their own paths for each other without the above-mentioned corridor conversations. At the crossing points of those roads, border and other relevant control services should operate based on the jurisdiction, sovereignty, and legislation of the countries. This should be done on the principle of reciprocity and equality, and we are ready to move towards such solutions one day, we are ready to restore the Meghri railway, which will connect not only Azerbaijan and Armenia, but also the southern regions of Armenia with the northwestern regions, the southwestern regions of Azerbaijan Armenia with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, in further continuation with Turkey, Azerbaijan with Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia with the Islamic Republic of Iran, east-west with the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, north-south with the Gulf to the Black Sea. In Armenia, we call this project the Armenian Crossroads. But I think it's time to regionalize this project, rebrand it, and name it Crossroads of Peace from the high chair of the European Parliament, and this name is equally important and acceptable for us. By the same logic, we are ready for the opening of highways as well. The Republic of Armenia is ready to ensure the safety of cargo, vehicles, people, pipelines, electric lines in its territory, because the intersection of peace implies, among other things, the passage of pipelines and power lines.
Such solutions are also very important for the Republic of Armenia, because our country has been under siege by Azerbaijan and Turkey for 30 years.
As you can see, there is no reason to accuse Armenia of obstructing the opening of transport communications in the region, and there are analyzes that official Baku is manipulating the corridor talk to provoke a new war in the region, to occupy new territories of Armenia, or to keep Armenia under blockade.
Such a thing cannot be allowed. As you saw, all the principles mentioned above were developed and agreed upon with the participation of the President of the EU Council and the President of Azerbaijan, and we are ready to implement these agreements. Moreover, in terms of transport communications, by observing the above-mentioned principles, including the principle of reciprocity, we are ready to simplify the procedures, we are ready to ensure the safety of the passage of Azerbaijani goods and Azerbaijanis through our territory, hoping for reciprocity as well, we are ready for a mirror withdrawal of troops to the borders of 1991 from the line, which will mean that Azerbaijan will not have troops in any territory of Armenia, and Armenia will not have troops in Azerbaijan. We are ready to address the issue of the so-called enclaves on the principle of reciprocity, as I stated in the interview given to the Armenian public television on October 10.
And finally, we are ready to sign a peace and relations settlement agreement with Azerbaijan by the end of the year. Of course, the fact that Azerbaijan refused to come to the meeting in Granada, about which, by the way, the agreement was reached on July 15 in Brussels and this agreement is also expressed in the statement issued by Charles Michel based on the results of the meeting, so not coming to that meeting did not make our affairs easier. :
But on the other hand, during this year, as the President of the European Parliament mentioned, we have an agreement to hold a tripartite meeting in Brussels, and if the above-mentioned principles are officially reaffirmed, it will become very realistic to sign an agreement on peace and relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan by the end of the year.
We are also ready for the principle of releasing all captives, detained persons and detained persons, all for all, and we are also ready to cooperate closely in clarifying the fate of the missing persons. 1016 citizens of Armenia are currently considered missing. We are ready to cooperate in demining. I would like to emphasize that in 2021, Armenia received from Nagorno Karabakh and transferred to Azerbaijan all the maps of minefields at the disposal of the Armenian side. We did this without preconditions, as an expression of goodwill, but, unfortunately, Azerbaijan perceived it not as a step towards peace, but as an opportunity to intensify aggressive rhetoric towards Armenia.
But in spite of all this, we must move steadily towards peace.
To do this, political will is necessary and I and the Armenian government, the parliamentary majority have that political will. On the other hand, the international community and the European Union, the countries of our region should support us, do everything to make the use of this opportunity a reality for us, for Azerbaijan and Armenia. And in this matter, I will ask for your continued attention and support, especially in the implementation of the principles on which, as I have already said, we have reached an agreement with the participation of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of Azerbaijan.
You can read the full speech of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to the European Parliament on 17 October 2023 on the website of the Armenian government here.
source: commonspace.eu
photo: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan
