As part of his working visit to New York, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan delivered a speech at the 79th session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters.
Below is the full speech of the Prime Minister of Armenia.
“Mr. President,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is my fourth speech at the UN General Assembly and this speech will be significantly different from the previous ones. The key messages of my previous speeches were about the deadlock in achieving peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but today I want to say that Peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan not only is possible, but is within reach.
Read also
Why do I think so? For a few specific reasons. Quite recently, on August 30, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed the Regulation on the Joint Activity of the Commissions on Delimitation of the state border between the two countries.
This is the first bilateral legal document signed between the parties. But what is more important with that document, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to set the 1991 Alma Ata Declaration as the basic principle of border delimitation between the two countries and will be guided by it.
This means that Armenia and Azerbaijan de jure reconfirm the principle of recognizing each other’s territorial integrity and inviolability of borders that existed during the Soviet Union, which is a fundamental factor for establishing peace. Now it is de jure reconfirmed that the two countries have no territorial claims on each other.
What we have to do now is to take the next step and sign the Agreement on Establishment of Peace and Inter-State Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. The President of Azerbaijan and I have stated many times that at least 80 percent of the mentioned Agreement has been agreed upon.
Now, to seize this historic opportunity and to avoid the risk of reaching a deadlock, Armenia proposes to take what has already been agreed in the draft Agreement, sign it, have a peace Agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan and then go on with negotiations on pending issues. We are ready to do this right now.
Why do we propose this? Because there is no precedent of a peace agreement or any agreement that would regulate and solve everything. It is practically not possible. After signing any agreement, two countries may always need to conclude new agreements and make new arrangements for this very reason.
No matter how comprehensive any agreement, many important issues need to be further addressed.
And in the case of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the agreed articles of the draft Peace Agreement actually contain provisions on peace, on not having territorial claims on each other and not putting forward such claims in the future, provisions on establishing diplomatic relations and a joint commission to oversee the implementation of the Peace Agreement, a provision on not interfering in each other’s internal affairs, not using force and threat of force, and other important provisions.
Signing the Peace Agreement with the already agreed articles, will significantly facilitate the resolution of the non-agreed issues. The already agreed parts of the draft Peace Agreement provide tools for that: one of them is the diplomatic relations to be established between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the second is the joint Armenia-Azerbaijan commission to oversee the implementation of the Peace Agreement. I mean, the existence of de jure peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan by signing the proposed Agreement, and the establishment of diplomatic relations, will result in changing the overall atmosphere and the perception of our Governments and Peoples, which will significantly facilitate the solution of the remaining issues.
Azerbaijan, however, insists that the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia is an obstacle to the peace Agreement, because it allegedly contains territorial claims on Azerbaijan.
Without going into details, let me say that there is nothing of this kind in our Constitution, there are no territorial claims on Azerbaijan, and we can provide detailed written proofs regarding this to all our international partners concerned.
Moreover, it is the Constitution of Azerbaijan that contains territorial claims on the Republic of Armenia and we can present written argumentation on this as well to all our international partners concerned.
But pay attention: we do not consider the Constitution of Azerbaijan as an obstacle to the Peace Agreement for the simple reason, that the agreed part of the draft Peace Agreement contains wording that solves the problem and that wording is as follows: “None of the Parties may invoke the provisions of its internal legislation as justification for its failure to perform the present Agreement”.
Therefore, the signing of the Agreement will address the concerns of both Armenia and Azerbaijan and will create legal guarantees for addressing them fundamentally. When we examine the agreed text of the Peace Agreement in terms of compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, we see the following picture: Under the Constitution of Armenia, agreements that contradict the Constitution may not be ratified.
And as in other cases, after signing the Peace Agreement with Azerbaijan, we must submit it to the Constitutional Court to verify the compliance of the Agreement with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.
If our Constitutional Court decides that the Peace Agreement with Azerbaijan is in contradiction with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia (even though our experts assure that it is not likely to happen), then we will face a specific situation where constitutional changes will be needed for the sake of achieving peace.
And if our Constitutional Court decides that the Agreement complies with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, then there will be no barriers for ratification in the Parliament of Armenia, and here an extremely important circumstance comes in.
Under Paragraph 3 of Article 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, ratified international agreements have precedence over the domestic legislation of the Republic of Armenia, and therefore, after the signing and ratification of the Peace Agreement with Azerbaijan, theoretically, even if there were laws that could be interpreted as containing territorial claims, these documents would be subordinate to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Agreement and would automatically have no legal force. The same logic would apply to Azerbaijan of course.
Honorable President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
As you can see, here is peace so close to us and all we need to do, is reach out and take it. It is not easy for either Armenia or Azerbaijan, because each of us has our own truth and the debate over those truths has led to enmity, casualties, and wars. The pain is very deep and intense.
But we must now focus on peace, because peace is the only truth understandable to the people of Armenia and Azerbaijan. And this truth will open our eyes and shut down the sources of enmity, and we will all look to the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The “Crossroads of Peace” project of the Government of the Republic of Armenia is also dedicated to that future. The purpose of the project is not only to open automobile routes, railroads, and other transport communications between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also to provide communication between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkiye and the whole region, as well as to create opportunities for the passage of pipelines and cables and eventually, provide opportunities for people-to-people contacts, which is a key and critical factor for peacemaking.
A key factor for peace and development is also that all this shall happen with due respect for the sovereignty, jurisdiction, territorial integrity of the countries, on the basis of the principles of equality and reciprocity, and we are ready to open our transport communications to both Azerbaijan and Turkyie, as well as to our other neighbors and partners. And we are ready to do it even today. Right today.
By the way, the Crossroads of Peace can become a part of the Middle Corridor, ensuring greater speed and efficiency of the passage of goods through it.
The Republic of Armenia is ready to fully ensure the safety of the passage of cargo, vehicles and people on its territory. It is our wish; our commitment and we can do it. By the way, all those claims that Armenia has agreed somewhere, in some document, that third forces shall provide the security of communications on its territory, are simply distortion of reality.
Armenia’s commitment is clear: to guarantee the safety of cargo, vehicles and people on its territory and we guarantee it.
Honorable President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today I don’t want to send any negative, worrying or pessimistic message, not because they do not exist, but because the Armenian proverb says: “Let us speak the positive, in order to be well”, meaning that when you speak positive, good things tend to become reality. It may be that there is a similar saying in Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Iran, Georgia, and in other countries in the world, and they all consider it their own.
But “Let us speak the positive, in order to be well”, is not about saying empty words. Of course one should work hard and sometimes make hard decisions.
In my speech, I laid out all the circumstances that give me a reason to speak the positive, to be well in front of this distinguished audience. And if we rely on these circumstances, good things will happen, initiating a process of reducing the circumstances that generate the negative. Thank you “.