YEREVAN, October 23. /ARKA/. The presence of terrorists in Nagorno-Karabakh will have concrete consequences not only for the region of the South Caucasus, but also for the countries bordering it, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.
The prime minister said the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is an important and fundamental issue, but now the whole process has moved out of the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the first thing that needs to be done is to return the process to the mainstream negotiations.
“First you need to resolve the issue of terrorists. Because if they succeed here, they will go further south and north. Because this is their profession – to terrorize, destabilize, and there is not much difference for them where to do it,” he said.
Pashinyan said a counter-terrorist operation in the region is one of the ways to resolve the problem. When asked whether it should be carried out by the Armenian forces, he answered in the negative.
“The forces of Nagorno-Karabakh are doing this as much as possible. Now they are fighting on three fronts – against the Azerbaijani army, against the Turkish army and against terrorists. But I think this is not just a question for me, because we, of course, support anti-terrorist actions, as far as possible. I think that countries for whose national security this situation has specific threats should intervene,’ Pashinyan said.
The prime minister answered in the affirmative to the question of whether he meant Russia and Iran.
“Of course, Russia’s interests are primarily affected. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh there were at least two cases of anti-terrorist operations carried out in the Russian North Caucasus, and Russian officials said that they (terrorists) had arrived. from Syria. Prior to that, the chief of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service stated that there are terrorists in the conflict zone. And these two statements cannot but be connected with each other,” Pashinyan said.
He said the only question is whether the Russian services will wait for the arrival of these terrorists in their territory or whether it is necessary to pursue a preventive policy.
When asked if this would be considered an invitation to a third force to intervene in this conflict, Pashinyan said that first it was necessary to clarify what the “third force” meant.
“Russia is the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, on the other hand, is a strategic ally of Armenia, and the Russian president said that the Russian Federation will be faithful to its obligations in the field of security in relations with Armenia.
This is already an issue that needs further consideration. There are many nuances. I say that the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh has long gone beyond the framework of the Karabakh problem, and in fact, many foreign partners have officially recognized this too, and I think and hope that further reaction will be in the same spirit,” he said.