Armenia's Security Council Sec on Nagorno-Karabakh status: "I am sure we will achieve results"
Statement of the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia
“Any tension on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has a negative impact on all processes”, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan said amid the recent incident at the border.
On May 28, as a result of the shelling of Armenian positions from the Azerbaijani side, a serviceman of the Armenian Armed Forces, David Vardanyan, was wounded. A day later, the Armenian Defense Ministry reported that the serviceman’s life could not be saved.
Armen Grigoryan stressed that in statements about the content of the Armenian-Azerbaijani talks, the Armenian side “tries to be as transparent as possible”, unlike the Azerbaijani side.
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Border delimination and security commission
During the briefing, journalists asked the Secretary of the Security Council why the composition of the Armenian commission is almost two times smaller than the Azerbaijani one. Armen Grigoryan was also asked why the commission included only high-ranking officials, and not specialists in the field.
Answering these questions, Grigoryan stressed that the number of people did not matter much. As for the readiness of the members of the commission, according to the Secretary of the Security Council, “all issues are discussed at the interdepartmental level”:
“If a deputy minister is a member of the working group, this does not mean that other employees of the ministry are not involved in the preparation of the process”.
Grigoryan also said that at the second meeting of the commissions on delimitation, which will be held in Moscow, the parties will discuss “how they will move forward in this process”. However, Grigoryan did not specify when the meeting would take place.
Negotiations and disagreements
The Secretary of the Security Council stressed that the Armenian side is as transparent as possible in its statements about the content of the talks. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani side, according to Armen Grigoryan, is spreading “statements that do not correspond to the content of the negotiations.”
After the Pashinyan-Michel-Aliyev trilateral meeting, Baku announced agreements had been reached on the “Zangezur corridor”. The Armenian Foreign Ministry, in response to Aliyev’s statement, called on the Azerbaijani leader not to torpedo the negotiations “in existing formats”. The mediator of the meeting, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, also issued a statement. He noted that the manipulation of extraterritorial claims was regrettable.
“Negotiations are ongoing because there are disagreements. We hope that these differences can be overcome through negotiations”, Grigoryan said.
He confirmed the position of the Armenian side on the issue of unblocking regional communications. The Secretary of the Security Council stressed that “corridor logic” in this matter was excluded. Armen Grigoryan recalled statements on this issue from Brussels and Moscow:
“In November, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk also said that not a single issue is being discussed in corridor logic”.
After the second Karabakh war, the Azerbaijani side repeatedly demanded the provision of a “corridor” through the territory of Armenia to its Nakhichevan exclave. The Armenian side continuously underscored that it was in favor of unblocking regional communications, but was categorically against providing routes with “corridor logic”. According to the explanation of the Armenian authorities, the term “corridor” implies the loss of sovereignty over this territory, which is out of the question.
Status of Nagorno-Karabakh
The Secretary of the Security Council assured that Armenia continues to insist and promote during the negotiations issues related to the “security and rights of compatriots” living in Nagorno-Karabakh. The definition of the status of Nagorno Karabakh, according to him, should be based on these considerations:
“We will continue to work in this direction. I am sure that this is the important direction and, by following it, we will achieve results”.
Statements by the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia
