The ruling Civil Contract Party (CCP) of Armenia is adopting a new vision regarding the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict. Ruben Rubinyan, a member of the CCP board and deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, announced this at Saturday’s congress of the CCP.
“If previously the Nagorno-Karabakh status—which shall become the guarantee of the rights and security of the Artsakh Armenians—was considered a priority, now the security and rights of the Artsakh Armenians are considered a priority, and the necessary status stems from the system of their guarantees,” Rubinyan added.
“That system shall guarantee that the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh live in their homeland, consider themselves Armenians, Karabakh, Artsakh people. Any settlement of the issue is impossible without the appropriate engagement of Nagorno-Karabakh. The war [in 2020] and its consequences further aggravated the vulnerability of Armenia’s external security. The Nagorno-Karabakh problem, the unsettled relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan are a source of constant threat to Armenia’s security. And these threats must be managed and eliminated. We are convinced that the way to ensure the security of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh is to develop a formula of coexistence—that is, non-exclusion of each other’s existence—with all the countries of the region; first of all, with our immediate neighbors Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia. Armenia should not be considered a source of threat for its neighbors, and its neighbors should not be a source of threat for Armenia,” Rubinyan added.
According to him, increasing Armenia’s defense capability does not contradict that vision in any way; moreover, it is an integral part of it.