Bayramov: Pashinyan changed stance after Dushanbe meeting

The first contact between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after he came to power was in Dushanbe in September 2018, and then the President said that they should resolve the issue.

1news.media reports that Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said this in an interview with ITV.

J. Bayramov noted that Nikol Pashinyan's position was quite constructive and replied, "I have just come to power, I will take the necessary steps to resolve the conflict."

"While Mr. President was in Dushanbe, he gave the Ministry of Defense an instruction to ensure complete calm and stability in all directions. An agreement was reached between Nikol Pashinyan and the countries to organize a hotline, and this line was formed so that in the event of any tension, the parties immediately take steps to ensure stability."

J. Bayramov added that after that meeting, Pashinyan changed his position:

"He even says that they will kill him if he takes a step towards resolving the conflict. "You want them to kill me," he says. Mr. President says that we don't want anyone to die."

The minister recalled that later in 2019, Pashinyan used the phrase "Karabakh is Armenia, period."

"On July 10, 2020, a new National Security Concept of Armenia is being developed, and the consolidation of the results of the First Karabakh War is added to that concept. Later, the military personnel who participated in the murder of Polad Hashimov are being awarded. All of this was a crossing of the red line. Later, such a phrase is used that Azerbaijan should negotiate with members of the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic." This was the destruction of the entire negotiation system that existed until that time."