The inventory of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship peace proposals for the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict has entered its seventh month at Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs– with no visible results. We draw this conclusion from MFA spokesperson Ani Badalyan’s comment in response to Aravot’s query.
“The task is underway. We will duly inform the public on developments,” Ani Badalyan communicated.
Context
The call to disclose the proposals negotiated during the Artsakh conflict was voiced by First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan in late December. This was in response to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s claim that negotiations revolved around recognizing Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan since 1994.
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“Given that after the destruction of Artsakh the confidentiality of this process has lost its meaning, [I suggest] to disclose all proposals submitted by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group (including that of June 2019) and the official replies of Armenian diplomacy…” the President stated.
In early January, Nikol Pashinyan tasked Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan with the ‘inventory’ of negotiated papers. The Prime Minister will then make the final call on releasing the documents.
Responding to opposition criticism of his refusal to disclose the documents, PM Pashinyan offered the following explanation in February.
“Don’t assume that there are categorized– first, second, third– volumes of negotiations. We find a part of them under the refrigerator, we locate a part of them inside the air conditioning unit, another part is handed to us by a private individual. Have you left them all in one drawer? If you had, we’d say ‘here, take them, they’re for you,’” the Armenian Prime Minister stressed in Parliament.
The heavy refrigerators: Manukyan
“The refrigerators are so heavy they’re unable to find the document [the 2019 proposal]. It’s not an important document, is it? It’s a worthless document,” Aram Manukyan, Vice President of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s Armenian National Congress Party and former Member of Parliament, quips.
He continues: “To be more serious, it’s quite obvious they’re concealing the documents because those documents will unmask them. Those documents will reveal the entire truth. There is no other reason. The publicization of the 2019 proposal terrifies them.”
Manukyan poses a rhetorical question: “How is it possible for a proposal submitted by the OSCE Co-Chairs not to be on everyone’s desks at the Foreign Ministry?”
“No negotiated document was labeled as classified:” Mikoyan
In a talk with Aravot, Bagrat Mikoyan, Head of the Second President’s Office, detailed the essence of the peace deals.
“During President Kocharyan’s tenure, no negotiated document was labeled as classified…Multiple documents have been disclosed. No one has been charged, which logically proves that those documents were not classified,” Bagrat Mikoyan remarks.
Mikoyan recalls that ‘President Kocharyan did not take any document out with him when completing his presidency,’ meaning Kocharyan himself cannot publicize them; however, ‘in retrospect, it would have been preferable if he had taken [them].’
In his February 17 press conference, Second President Robert Kocharyan, too, informed that the documents are not considered state secrets.
Aravot can confirm the 1997 Package Deal and Phased Deal, the 1998 Common State Deal, the 2007 Madrid Principles, and the 2011 Kazan Deal are available on the web. Needless to say, those are not official releases but rather publications by independent researchers and journalists.
The only proposals that remain undisclosed are the 2001 Key West Deal and the 2019 Deal.
“Unintelligible and illogical:” Mamijanyan
The fact that Nikol Pashinyan till today refuses to disclose the proposals part of the negotiating process is wonderful proof that he has something to hide, Hayk Mamijanyan, Head of the parliamentary I Have Honor group, believes.
“To sum things up, the previously-negotiated proposals are, in whole or in part, well-known; nonetheless, the deal submitted in 2019 and rejected by Nikol Pashinyan remains undisclosed to this date,” Hayk Mamijanyan notices and adds, “Nikol Pashinyan would reject the existence of this deal for quite some time. Nikol Pashinyan, his team would claim that there is no deal, no document, until it was revealed due to reasons unconnected [to Pashinyan] that there was a deal, which they were concealing, under consideration.”
Mamijanyan deems Pashinyan’s readiness to appeal to the OSCE to dissolve the Minsk Group at Baku’s demand while at the same time not disclosing the papers submitted under the auspices of the very same Minsk Group as ‘unintelligible and illogical.’
Former President Serzh Sargsyan, who heads the Republican Party to which Mamijanyan belongs, reiterated his call to disclose the documents on June 10.
The call remains in effect
Aravot inquired whether the demand to disclose the documents remains relevant.
“The demand hangs in the air…All political parties, including ours, suggest they disclose the final document. One thing remains: disclose the document…The document exists. They don’t deny that. Go ahead and disclose it,” Aram Manukyan concludes.
Bagrat Mikoyan notes: “Undoubtedly, the demand remains in effect and always will…This is a very natural and understandable demand. What we negotiated is clear, evident, comprehensible, and not against state interests. We are not afraid or anxious [by their disclosure]. The demand is always in effect.”
MP Hayk Mamijanyan, in turn, reaffirms: “The Republican Party of Armenia, its parliamentary group, the I Have Honor Bloc, has repeatedly and publicly stated its demand: disclose all the proposals negotiated…‘Work is underway,’ ‘We’re collecting,’ ‘We’re gathering,’ and so on: these this government’s regular lies.”
Today’s picture
What can we conclude? The allies of Presidents Ter-Petrosyan, Kocharyan, and Sargsyan continue to call on Pashinyan to disclose all proposals negotiated, forming reasonable grounds to assume the three presidents have no concern with the disclosure of what they negotiated.
Similarly, Prime Minister Pashinyan’s government is dragging out the ‘inventory,’ leaving reasonable suspicion that the incumbent administration has something to tuck away.
Arsen AIVAZIAN
