Karabakh ex-Presidents Ghukasyan, Sahakyan react to Armenia PM Pashinyan's recent Facebook post

On November 29 and 30 of this year, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia [(RA)], Nikol Pashinyan, noted in his Facebook posts that on October 19 he was telephoned by the President of the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] Republic, Arayik Haroutyunyan, and was told that the [recent Artsakh] war should be stopped, also noting that this conveys the opinion not only on behalf of himself, but also of the retired presidents of the RA and NKR [(Nagorno-Karabakh Republic)] Arkadi Ghukasyan, Bako Sahakyan, Robert Kocharyan, Serzh Sargsyan, Levon Ter-Petrosyan. The second and third presidents of Artsakh, Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan, respectively, have noted this in a statement.

"(…) since the beginning of the war, we had been in constant contact with the incumbent President of Artsakh, Arayik Haroutyunyan, discussing the course of the war, the possibilities of resuming the peace negotiation process, and other issues.

(…) we came to the conclusion that it is necessary to take measures to stop the war immediately, about which we have repeatedly informed the incumbent President of the Artsakh Republic, Arayik Haroutyunyan, urging him to address the RA Prime Minister and the three OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. On October 18, Arayik Haroutyunyan also came to this conclusion and asked for our assistance in this matter, obtaining our consent.

Retired Presidents of the Republic of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Robert Kocharyan, and Serzh Sargsyan also underscored the cessation of hostilities.

On October 19, President of the Artsakh Republic, Arayik Haroutyunyan, had prepared relevant letters addressed to the presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries and the RA Prime Minister on the cessation of hostilities and the resumption of the negotiation process within the OSCE Minsk Group. However, Prime Minister Pashinyan reasoned that under the condition of the situation created as a result of the policy of Azerbaijan, the reference to these letters lost its expediency; this is the whole truth.

As for the RA Prime Minister’s [Facebook] posts which do not correspond to the reality, at the moment we consider it expedient not to reflect on them in order to avoid unnecessary speculations and unfounded discussions," Arkadi Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan added in their statement, and below it presented the texts of the aforementioned letters.