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The latest talks between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev did not focus on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict itself, but rather the creation an environment that allows a peace process, Pashinyan said in an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24.  

The Armenian PM stressed it is not possible to talk about the conflict solution without having the necessary environment to achieve it.

“We have discussed the fact that if the situation remains tense we will be unable to actually move towards any final solution. So, we have been working together to calm tensions in the friction areas between Azerbaijan and Karabakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border,” he said.

Commenting on the question over the format of negotiations, Pashinyan said Armenia has never put forward an issue of changing it.      

“We believe the negotiation process must continue within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group chairmanship. But Azerbaijan does not want to talk to the representatives of Karabakh. How is it possible that Karabakh remains under the authority of Azerbaijan if Azerbaijan doesn’t even want to talk with them, with the people who live in Karabakh,” the PM stressed.

“This clearly shows that what Azerbaijan wants to do with Karabakh is to get the land, not the people who live there. Their main concern is to cleanse Karabakh of the people who live there.”

Pashinyan also touched upon other issues during the interview, including the timeframes of his resignation and the snap parliamentary elections in the country, as well as the Armenian-Russian relations.