Pashinyan's attempts to blame the treacherous loss of Artsakh on the history and the people of the past collided with the 30-year negotiation legacy and, ultimately, with the point left by Serzh Sargsyan, which Nikol himself spoke about in his press conference in January 2020.
The Artsakh baton was transferred to the third president and Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian from the previous negotiators, the second president Robert Kocharyan and the Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan, in November 2007 in the form of the Madrid principles presented by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.
During the decade of Serzh Sargsyan's administration, based on these principles, the so-called Kazanian version took the form of a negotiation document (June 2011), and the ideas, recommendations, and versions after that were working approaches in non-paper format.
Since 2008, the negotiation process gathered new momentum with many bilateral, trilateral and multilateral meetings at the highest and highest levels.
At the same time, three factors created additional challenges for Armenian diplomacy.
1. External influences intensified for Armenia on the occasion of the tragic events of March 1, 2008.
2. The constant growth of geopolitical tension between the superpowers has entered a new phase (the Munich speech of the Russian President in 2007, the Russian-Georgian war in 2008, the international situation caused by the Crimea and Donbass in 2014, the Russian operation in Syria since 2015, etc.).
3. Oil-dollar doping from Azerbaijan's energy projects and the sharp and continuous increase in military spending. And here, under these conditions, Armenian diplomacy was not only able to maintain its red lines, but also, based on the Madrid settlement proposal that appeared at the end of 2007, it was able to reach the most pro-Armenian version approved by the international community, protected and guaranteed by it, the details of which were repeatedly voiced by the OSCE itself. by the IC co-chair countries, and the same Pashinyan called the Kazan document the best.
In 2008-2018, Armenia not only faced Azerbaijan's diplomatic, including corruption-caviar, and military pressures, but also the "Madrid Document" with our efforts and more than 30 amendments and corrections turned into the "Basic Principles" that entered the international political and legal vocabulary. principles).
Let me give two examples of that negotiation transformation and improvement.
In the period from 2007 to 2018, the expression of the popular will underlying the realization of the right to self-determination of the people of Nagorno Karabakh and the final decision on the status of Nagorno Karabakh received the wording "legally binding".
And the interim rights and privileges of the Nagorno-Karabakh population proposed in the Madrid document were replaced by the "interim status of Nagorno-Karabakh" and the wording derived from it.
Even Azerbaijan had to agree to the negotiation process based on these approaches (November 2008: RF-Armenia-Azerbaijan Meindorf declaration, 2010 Astana OSCE summit heads of delegations of IC co-chair countries + Sargsyan + Aliyev five-way statement, etc.).
Moreover, it was these updated Basic Principles that became the 2009-2013. The cornerstone of 5 trilateral statements in the format of the presidents of Russia-USA-France, 10 joint statements at the summits of the OSCE Foreign Ministers, relevant provisions of the RA-EU Comprehensive and Extended Partnership Agreement, dozens of international reports and resolutions.
Regardless of the negotiation differences, the three former presidents of the Republic of Armenia were also united by the negotiation format, the OSCE Minsk Group, on the Artsakh issue.
And Pashinyan destroyed the negotiation package received in 2018 both in terms of content and format.
ARMEN ASHOTIAN
Vice President of RPA
"Dzoraghbyur" TSC
