“Azerbaijan’s official propaganda is increasingly focusing on the notion that Armenia is arming itself and preparing to attack Azerbaijan and that Azerbaijan therefore has the right to defend itself and take preventive measures,” he said in an article published by the official Armenpress news agency.
Pashinian pointed to Baku’s “aggressive rhetoric,” major military buildup and continuing description of most of Armenia’s internationally recognized territory as “Western Azerbaijan.” He said the Azerbaijani leadership may thus be “trying to form the basis” for another military aggression against Armenia.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev implicitly threatened such military action a month ago, branding Armenia as a “fascist” state and complaining about Yerevan’s reluctance to open an extraterritorial land corridor to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave. Pashinian responded at the time by signaling readiness to more concessions to Baku, including dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh. The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry dismissed his overtures.
Pashinian stressed on Monday that Armenia unconditionally recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and has no “plan, intention or goal for any military action against Azerbaijan.” He said Yerevan will not even use force to try to liberate more than 200 square kilometers of Armenian territory mostly occupied by Azerbaijani forces in 2021 and 2022.
Pashinian also renewed his calls for the quick signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty. Aliyev has repeatedly set multiple preconditions for such an accord which include a change of Armenia’s constitution.
Armenian opposition leaders maintain that Pashinian’s appeasement policy is only encouraging Aliyev to demand more Armenian concessions and increasing the likelihood of another military conflict.
“What Pashinian says is, ‘Look, we’ve given you what you demanded. What else do you want? We are ready to concede everything,’” one of them, Artur Khachatrian, said, commenting on the Armenian premier’s latest statement. “Contrary to these authorities’ assurances that we are negotiating in good faith, going towards peace, Azerbaijan is threatening Armenia with war.”
Hayk Konjorian, the parliamentary leader of the ruling Civil Contract, refused to say whether Pashinian’s statement indeed means that the peace process is deadlocked.