Robert Ananyan – Review of PM Pashinyan’s recent speech: “He added that his government is working with international partners on the formation of international mechanisms to ensure the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh: “But if these efforts do not give concrete results, the government will welcome our sisters and brothers from Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia with all care” he said, noting, however, that the above-mentioned issues will become more serious with this.”

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#Azerbaijan‘s attacks against Armenia in recent years lead to an obvious conclusion that the external #security systems in which we are involved aren’t effective from the point of view of Armenia’s state interests and security” said Pashinyan.

He enumerated a number of events, such as the events of Khtsaberd, Parukh, and many other cases of intimidation of the people of

#Artsakh, as well as the latest Azerbaijani attack, noting that all of these raise serious questions about the activities and motives of the Russian peacekeeping troops in Nagorno #Karabakh.

Pashinyan also said that contrary to the tripartite statement of November 9, 2020, the

#Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh are facing the danger of ethnic cleansing today.

He mentioned that humanitarian goods have entered Artsakh, but this doesn’t solve the existing crisis. “If real living conditions for Nagorno Karabakh Armenians in their homes and effective mechanisms of protection from ethnic cleansing are not created, the probability that Nagorno Karabakh Armenians will see the only way to save their lives and identity is to leave their homeland.

The responsibility for such a development of events will fall entirely on Azerbaijan, which has adopted the policy of ethnic cleansing, and on the

#Russian peacekeeping troops in Nagorno Karabakh” said Pashinyan.

He added that his government is working with international partners on the formation of international mechanisms to ensure the rights and security of the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh: “But if these efforts do not give concrete results, the government will welcome our sisters and brothers from Nagorno Karabakh to Armenia with all care” he said, noting, however, that the above-mentioned issues will become more serious with this.

Nikol Pashinyan insisted that Armenia has never betrayed its allies, but the analysis of events shows that “those security systems and those allies that we have relied on for many years, have set the task of showing our vulnerabilities and justifying the impossibility of an independent state for the Armenian people.”

Moreover, according to him, such policy has nothing to do with the government established by the revolution in 2018, the manifestations of this policy were also before that.

Without naming the states, Pashinyan said that some partners are making more and more efforts to show Armenia’s vulnerability in the field of security, putting internal security and stability under attack. He accused those partners of not fulfilling all the norms of diplomatic, interstate relations, ethics, correctness, even the obligations assumed by the contracts.

“We call and urge our partners to respect our state and sovereignty. We express our determined will to strengthen our statehood, sovereignty, democracy, external and internal security. We call on the international community to express unwavering support for Armenia’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and democracy” urged Pashinyan.

He considered it necessary to strengthen, transform, and supplement Armenia’s external and internal security tools, cooperating with all partners ready for mutually beneficial steps.

The prime minister also spoke about the Rome Statute, saying that the decision to ratify it was made in December 2022, when it became clear that the

#CSTO and the Armenian-Russian strategic partnership tools are not enough to ensure Armenia’s external security. Pashinyan once again repeated that this decision is not directed against Russia.

“The deep meaning of the events happening to us in recent years and today is exactly this: will Armenia be a sovereign, free, democratic state, or will it be a fearful periphery” he said. The Prime Minister insisted that we should go after the movement for the defense of Armenia’s

#independence, knowing that it will not be easy, but “it will happen”.