Pashinyan did not use Russians’ help to get them out of the region — Beniamin Matevosyan

Speaking with Alpha News, political scientist Beniamin Matevosyan commented on the border delimitation work carried out in the Tavush region, during which the territories were given away to Azerbaijan.

“If this was a delimitation, then it should not have been limited only to the area in Kirants. We should have seen that the process continues in other parts of the border. At a government meeting in February 2024, Nikol Pashinyan referred to the agreements reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan, expressing bewilderment at the fact that there is an agreement on the recognition of each other’s territorial integrity by states in accordance with the Alma Ata Declaration, but Azerbaijan refuses to implement it. He probably sent a message to those bodies through which this agreement was reached. The Alma Ata Declaration recognized the territorial integrity of each other, but those bodies either did not hear or did not want to hear, and Pashinyan was forced to fulfill the conditions set by Azerbaijan. Back in December 2023, Aliyev said that these areas should come under Azerbaijan’s control,” the political scientist said.

Matevosyan recalled Pashinyan’s alleged warnings in Kirants that if Armenia does not give these territories to Azerbaijan, there will be a war.

“Pashinyan visited Kirants several times and gave assessments, saying that if we do not give these territories to Azerbaijan now, a war will start against us from Pakistan to Russia. The following is interesting: there were Russian border guards there, in whose presence Pashinyan stated that ‘these Russian border guards will start a war against us if we do not surrender these territories’,” Beniamin Matevosyan said.

He stressed that instead of giving territories away to Azerbaijan, there were other alternatives, one of which was proposed by the Russian president himself.

“There really were alternatives, apart from the fact that there are clear regulations within the OSCE on how to conduct delimitation and demarcation. Russian President Vladimir Putin also raised this issue at a conference in Valdai and stated that Russia is ready to support Yerevan and Baku in carrying out the border delimitation and demarcation, and the maps of the General Staff of the Soviet Union should be adopted as a basis. But since Nikol Pashinyan made a strategic choice to withdraw Russians from the region, he refused the Russian proposal, which had clear maps. And we ended up in a situation where the territories were given away,” Beniamin Matevosyan concluded.