Pashinyan says he rejected 19 October 2020 ceasefire offer because it envisaged extraterritorial corridor
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that the 19 October 2020 proposed deal to end the Second Nagorno Karabakh War envisaged the deployment of peacekeepers in Meghri to ensure connection between the western regions of Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan, but he rejected the proposal because he did not approve for an extraterritorial corridor to be created in the territory of Armenia, ARMENPRESS reports.
On 19 October 2020, the Russian President reiterated that they can try to end the war with a plan that had been developed by Russia years earlier. Pashinyan said he agreed to the idea, but a day later President Putin conveyed Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev’s terms, including over Shushi.
A new idea was voiced in context of the October 19 offer, as an additional condition for ending the war. “The peacekeepers were supposed to be deployed not only in Karabakh and along the Lachin Corridor, but also in Meghri, to ensure connection between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan. I did not agree to this, I did not agree for a corridor, a layer not under Armenia’s control to emerge in Armenia’s territory. I said that I agree to a road but not a corridor,” Pashinyan said at the parliamentary select committee probing the causes and course of the 2020 Second Karabakh War.
The Armenian PM said he maintains the same stance – the roads must be opened, Azerbaijan’s western regions must have the opportunity of connection with Nakhchivan, but this cannot constitute an extraterritorial corridor, the road must be under Armenian sovereignty and jurisdiction.
“Thus, the 19 October proposal on ending the war envisaged the following terms, all seven regions were to be given to Azerbaijan, the NK status issue was to be left uncertain, the territories of NKAO that were lost at that moment were to remain under Azerbaijani control, while significant territories of NKAO were already under Azerbaijani control at that time. Shushi was to be surrendered to Azerbaijan [with guarantees that Azerbaijani refugees returning to Shushi, with Azerbaijan claiming that Azerbaijanis comprised 90% of the population of Shushi before the conflict], peacekeepers were to be deployed in Meghri and factually a corridor was to be created, that is, a layer beyond our control. I couldn’t agree to such conditions as much as I realized the severity of the situation. Looking back, I still couldn’t have agreed to it.”
Putin had said in an interview that under the October 19 option Shushi was to remain under Armenian control, but Pashinyan rejected the proposal.
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