“In the joint statement made by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and the Foreign Affairs Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, it is mentioned that the sides have agreed to uphold and strengthen the ceasefire regime, using the agreements made in Dushanbe as the reference,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said after the meeting held between the My Step faction and the Prime Minister in parliament on the evening of April 8th, answering the question of whether he has a guarantee that Azerbaijan will not try to carry out a military operation after taking into consideration what happened in 2016.
Pashinyan also said that he hopes Azerbaijan will not go against the agreement. “Because we have clearly agreed on this in writing, which was recorded by the Minsk Group. The agreement was to not use force and to not threaten to use force. I want to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that Azerbaijan sometimes threatens to use force as a form of negotiations. And what will be the result? Let’s create the peace agenda and work around that. Our dedication to peace and our civility should not be interpreted as weakness or fear. We do not fear anyone.”
Regarding humanitarian steps and agreements on the peace agenda, Pashinyan said that he hopes they will be able to guarantee the safety of villagers. “We are prepared to assure Azerbaijan that our troops will not fire upon any civilian, especially not upon agricultural workers. If Azerbaijan can agree to do the same, we will be able to uphold this.”
Pashinyan also said that if we are expected to be constructive, then we also expect the same in return. “We wish to be heard, and we will also listen to our colleagues. We can make our positions more flexible in order to push forward the peace agenda. But that cannot be one-sided.”
