Pashinyan comments on declassified U.S. documents

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed a report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which presented declassified U.S. State Department documents indicating that in the late 1990s, Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders negotiated the exchange of Meghri for Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinyan stated that his recent social media post—which led to his invitation for a debate with Armenia's three former presidents—was based on the facts revealed in this report, Armenpress reports.

The Prime Minister quoted a passage from the report: "Deputy Secretary of State Talbott responded that the option of exchanging Meghri for Nagorno-Karabakh could divert the conflicting parties from the Minsk Group’s proposals and, rather than solving the issue, could further complicate it. Experience from different parts of the world shows that border changes are akin to opening Pandora’s box. In the case of Karabakh, this would at best lead to a deadlock and at worst to violence."

According to Pashinyan, this excerpt confirms that in 1999, the OSCE Minsk Group chair stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved without border changes.

"This is exactly what I was saying. My post, which led to various comments and my call for a debate, was about this. If you (Armenia’s former presidents) claim that you never recognized Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan, then why were you willing to give away a sovereign part of Armenia to Azerbaijan to secure Karabakh?" Pashinyan questioned.

He added that the release of these diplomatic documents has now settled the matter.

"I can now say that I am no longer inviting Armenia’s three former presidents to a debate because there is simply nothing left to debate. The published documents have rendered the discussion meaningless," the Prime Minister concluded.

The U.S. State Department has declassified documents revealing that in the late 1990s, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, in direct talks without mediators, had reached an agreement to resolve the Karabakh conflict through territorial exchange—handing over Meghri in exchange for Karabakh.

The report states that previously undisclosed details of these negotiations have now come to light through the declassified U.S. diplomatic cables.