The first statements made by Armenia’s new Prime Minister on the Karabakh conflict “give rise to more questions than understanding” in Azerbaijan.
On 8 May, just before his election as Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan
said
that the unrecognized government of Karabakh should be included in peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
“Nagorno-Karabakh should return to the negotiating table,” Pashinyan said in parliament yesterday. “We are ready for negotiations with the leader of Azerbaijan, but I want to point out that the talks cannot be effective unless the leadership of Karabakh takes part in them, which is stipulated in the documents of the OSCE Minsk Group, which mediates the talks,” he added.
“The initial statements of the newly-minted Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan with regard to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict give rise to more questions than understanding,”
said
Hikmat Hajiyev, official representative of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Is it simple naivety or ignorance of the subject, or the bravado of a winner, or maybe everything at once? We’ll wait and see.”
Earlier today, Pashinyan
arrived
in Karabakh for on his first state visit. Azerbaijan, which considers it illegal to visit Karabakh without permission, officially
allowed
international journalists to travel to the disputed territory to cover Pashinyan’s trip.
