On May 14, 2023, in Brussels, Nikol Pashinyan and Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed their “unquestionable commitment to the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration and the territorial integrity of 29,800 square kilometers of Armenia and 86,600 square kilometers of Azerbaijan.”
Artsakh is also included in 86,600 square kilometers. Supreme Council deputy, political scientist Suren Zolyan expressed the opinion that the clear emphasis on 86.6 sq/km means that Pashinyan is fulfilling Aliyev’s demand, which most recently demanded that Pashinyan should declare: “Artsakh is Azerbaijan, and that’s it.”
The guest of the “Aravot” program ”Areresum” (“Confrontation”), political scientist and former member of the National Assembly Mikayel Zolyan (son of Suren Zolyan.-ed.), answered the question of whether he thinks that that statement fulfilled the demand of the President of Azerbaijan, said: “We have debated many times with the political scientist you mentioned on various topics, and we treat each other’s positions with great respect. But we also often agree to disagree. There are several considerations regarding this. First of all, the mention of the territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan in this situation, I think, is more beneficial to Armenia because the military balance is such that if Azerbaijan does not accept the territorial integrity of Armenia, its consequences for Armenia can be much worse than the opposite. If we declare today that we do not accept the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, what can we do after that?”
In response to whether we should give up Artsakh to keep Armenia, Mikayel Zolyan specifically said: “I don’t think that we have conceded Artsakh. We lost Artsakh as a result of the 2020 war. Today, Artsakh is occupied partly by Russian and Azerbaijani troops. He added that this does not mean we have given up protecting the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh.
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The other guest of the program, Anna Gevorgyan, a researcher at the Center for Civilization and Cultural Studies, Iranologist, said in this regard: “When we talk about the presence of Russian forces in Artsakh and interpret it as Russian occupation, when we have the statement of November 9, where there is also the signature of the Prime Minister of Armenia, that he agrees that these forces should be there, I think we are sending the wrong messages to our society to understand the general situation and the balance of power.” Mikayel Zolyan responded: “Maybe occupied is an emotional assessment, but the fact is that Artsakh is controlled by Russian forces, under the control of the Russian Federation, and Armenia cannot hand over or not Artsakh today; Russia can or not hand over Artsakh.”
Anna ISRAYELYAN
