There seems to be no end to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan\u2019s concessions to Azerbaijan\u2019s demands. The only end will be the end of Armenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, when Pres. Ilham Aliyev once again issued threats against Armenia, Pashinyan responded with further concessions. It feels like Aliyev is ruling Armenia from Baku.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aliyev gave a lengthy press conference to the Azeri media on January 7, 2025, during which he made arrogant statements about Armenia using an extremely demeaning tone. Here are excerpts from his remarks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Armenia returned the four villages in the Tavoush region to Azerbaijan \u201cas a result of a monologue rather than a dialogue.\u201d Armenia returned these villages \u201cunder coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cArmenia cannot compete with us in the arms race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cThe independent Armenian state is, in fact, a fascist state\u2026. Therefore, fascism must be eradicated. Either the Armenian leadership will destroy it, or we will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cArmenia must immediately cease arming itself. France and other countries that supply weapons to Armenia must terminate and cancel these contracts. The weapons that have already been delivered to Armenia must be returned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cThe dissolution of the Minsk Group and the amendment of the constitution; without these, a peace treaty is impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cThe Zangezur corridor must and will be opened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013\u201cDuring his [Pres. Trump\u2019s] first term, there was no issue in U.S.-Azerbaijan relations. On the contrary, the relations were very positive, and we were able to make progress in many areas. The main mistake of the Biden administration regarding Azerbaijan was that they sacrificed U.S.-Azerbaijan relations for U.S.-Armenia relations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cConsidering that the current territory of Armenia essentially includes the historical lands that were predominantly inhabited by Azerbaijanis, today we assert that 300,000 Western Azerbaijanis should return to those regions. However, the total number of those who have been displaced from that region, and who are now living in various parts of Azerbaijan, along with their descendants, is several times greater than 300,000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After members of the Armenian media complained about Pashinyan\u2019s eerie silence about Aliyev\u2019s threatening comments, he finally agreed to answer a few questions from Armenpress on January 8:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pashinyan said that by making aggressive statements about Armenia, Aliyev expected a similar aggressive response from Armenia \u201cto form the basis for a new escalation in the region. We will not take that path and we will remain committed to the strategy of peace.\u201d Pashinyan keeps begging for peace and ignoring Aliyev\u2019s multiple rejections. Aliyev prefers a piece of Armenia rather than a piece of paper which he will ignore even if he signs it. In this short interview, Pashinyan repeated the word peace 11 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked for his reply to Aliyev\u2019s accusation that Armenia is \u201ca fascist state,\u201d Pashinyan sheepishly agreed that there is such a perception about Armenia in Azerbaijan, just as there is a similar perception about Azerbaijan in Armenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding Aliyev\u2019s persistent demands for an Azeri corridor through Armenia, Pashinyan once again failed to demand that, as stated in the 2020 agreement, Azerbaijan allow a reciprocal access for Armenia through Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In responding to a question about Aliyev referring to the Republic of Armenia as \u201cWestern Azerbaijan,\u201d Pashinyan simply said: Aliyev \u201chas said nothing new about this topic for me to have a new reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding Aliyev\u2019s complaints about Armenia acquiring arms, Pashinyan stated: \u201cno one can dispute the right of the Republic of Armenia to have a defensible army.\u201d He then added: \u201cwe do not have an objective of militarily returning more than 200 square kilometers of occupied territories of the Republic of Armenia\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to Azeri accusations of Armenia violating the ceasefire, Pashinyan repeated his proposal \u201cto create a joint mechanism to jointly investigate each report about ceasefire violations, and draw joint conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On January 9, Pashinyan posted on his Facebook page a lengthy statement comprised of 17 points, complying with Aliyev\u2019s demands for concessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He described \u201cWestern Azerbaijan\u201d as consisting of several towns located in the Western part of Azerbaijan, including parts of Artsakh. He falsely named cities in the Republic of Armenia as being \u201cWestern Armenia,\u201d adding facetiously, \u201cthere is no Western Armenia beyond this and cannot be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He then detailed the components of \u201cestablishing lasting stability and peace in the region\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cMutually abandon escalatory narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cContinue the delimitation process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cSign a peace treaty which is 90% ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cImplement the \u2018Crossroads of Peace\u2019 project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cIntroduce a joint mechanism for investigating ceasefire violations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cFully resolve the issue of detained persons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cWork in full intensity to locate and resolve the issue of determining the fate of those considered missing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cWithdraw the claims against each other, including, but not limited to, claims in international courts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cWork on the complete and effective implementation of the provisions of the peace treaty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cForm a mechanism for negotiating around mutual arms control, quota allocation, and implementing restrictions on the use of armaments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cDiscuss in full the issues pertaining to refugees from the two countries by forming a joint professional, expert commission after the establishment of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 \u201cDissolve the OSCE Minsk Group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of these points are a rehash of Pashinyan\u2019s previous proposals which Aliyev has not accepted. However, several are against Armenia\u2019s interests, particularly: the withdrawal of mutual lawsuits in international courts and dissolving the OSCE Minsk Group. Both of these demands were dictated by Aliyev.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There seems to be no end to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan\u2019s concessions to Azerbaijan\u2019s demands. The only end will be the end of Armenia. Last week, when Pres. Ilham Aliyev once again issued threats against Armenia, Pashinyan responded with further concessions. It feels like Aliyev is ruling Armenia from Baku. Aliyev gave a lengthy press […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":824569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-824568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}