Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan (left) and Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan chaired a joint session of the countries’ security councils

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan convened a session of the two countries’ security councils in Yerevan on Friday, with the participation of the speakers of the Armenia and Artsakh parliaments, Ararat Mirzoyan and Artur Tovmasyan.

The joint session, a third such meeting to take place in the last two years, is designed to discuss the security challenges facing Armenia and Artsakh and formulate succinct responses to external threats. In that context, the military and aggressive rhetoric by Azerbaijan and its leader, Ilham Aliyev, became a focus of Pashinyan’s remarks, who condemned him destabilizing regional security by continuing its military threats at the time of a global pandemic.

“Azerbaijan’s use of force will not remain without its consequence and will always receive more than an adequate response both in the military and political realms,” said Pashinyan who added that Aliyev has placed himself in a deadlock by his continued war mongering.

“For more than 15 years he [Aliev] has promised his own people that the Karabakh conflict will be resolved through military means. Billions of dollars have been spent under this effort, which quite often result in money laundering, with those sums winding up in the accounts of famous peoples in offshore deals,” said Pashinyan.

“And now he [Aliyev] is unable to explain to his own people why the reality is as it is. He understands that his approaches will bring irreversible damages not only to Azerbaijan, but also will destroy his anti-national power. And in order to divert the people’s attention, he raises the tenor of his statements in order to get out of this deadlock, by trying to compensate for the failures of the past with new and more absurd promises about the future,” added Pashinyan.

The prime minister pointed to recent remarks by Aliyev who said that Azerbaijan will “liberate” Armenia, which in his view is Azerbaijani territory. Pashinyan said that Aliyev’s “recidiculous” policy of liberating “western Azerbaijan”—Armenia—seeks to destabilize the entire region.

“But I want to state in this regard that when we talk about the stability, security of the Karabakh conflict zone, in fact, we are talking about the stability and the security of our entire region, and in this sense Armenia is becoming the security guarantor of not only the Karabakh conflict zone, but also our entire region,” said Pashinyan.

“I think here we should demonstrate a special responsibility toward this regional role and be strong, and firm, and not to give in to meaningless and absurd provocations. Especially now when our societies are fighting against a global challenge—the novel coronavirus pandemic—we should call on [Baku] to refrain from such propaganda of hostility,” explained Pashinyan.

“Whether we want it or not, history and geography have made us neighbors. We should derive from the simple truth that our populations are equal and cannot be under one another’s rule. They should be able to determine their fate based on their will, their right to self-determination. The acceptance of this equality will greatly contribute to preparing our populations to peace and will provide reliable basis for the long-term and stable development of our region,” said Pashinyan.

Pashinyan also discussed the recent parliamentary and presidential elections in Artsakh, which he said allowed the people of Artsakh to exercise their fundamental rights of electing a leadership that will maintain and strengthen the security of the country, develop the country’s economic, political and civic life. More important, however, Pashinyan said, the elections have given a mandate to the newly-elected authorities to represent Artsakh at the negotiation table.

As a result of competitive and democratic elections Artsakh has a leadership who expresses its people’s aspirations to political reforms, economic and infrastructure development, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said in his remarks at the joint session of the Security Councils of Armenia and Artsakh in Yerevan.

“As a result of competitive and democratic elections Artsakh has a leadership who expresses its people’s aspirations to political reforms, economic and infrastructure development,” said Pashinyan who said the election highlighted the responsible role of the people of Artsakh in the peaceful conflict settlement process.

“It’s obvious that without the complete engagement of the Artsakh authorities there cannot be major progress in the negotiation process as each progress needs capacity for reaching and implementing key agreements, and it’s here that the democratic mandate received by the Artsakh authorities is irreplaceable,” said Pashinyan.