By Elen Muradyan
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry has declared on Saturday that the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) issue has been removed from the agenda of Armenia-Azerbaijan interstate relations following the forced displacement of the region’s Armenian population and the publication of the decree on the dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh. The ministry specifically referenced the document reportedly signed in late September 2023 by the last Karabakh president Samvel Shahramanian. This statement came in response to claims made by Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev during an April 2 joint press conference with Germany’s president.
Aliyev had asserted that the main obstacle in peace negotiations was Armenia’s insistence on including “the fate of the so-called Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh” in the peace treaty until January 2024. When questioned by Radio Liberty about the validity of this claim, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry responded with this controversial statement:
“We have repeatedly stated that in negotiations with Azerbaijan, Armenia was working to ensure the security and rights of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, including through the creation of an international mechanism to address these issues,” the ministry stated. “The efforts to organize meetings between representatives of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh in third countries were also aimed at this, but were rejected by Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The ministry added that “following the forced displacement of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh and the publication of the decree on the dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh, the issue has been removed from the agenda of normalization of interstate relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
Last September, Armenia’s National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan had insisted that the Armenian government did not participate in discussions regarding Shahramanyan’s decree to dissolve Artsakh; they were merely informed of the decision. Following Azerbaijan’s large-scale attack on Artsakh on September 19-20, 2023, Although this decree has never been officially published, it is frequently referenced. The Artsakh leadership has neither confirmed nor denied signing such a decree.
MFA Statement Criticized
The Foreign Ministry’s statement has triggered strong reactions from experts and officials. Tatul Hakobyan, a prominent journalist and author of several books on the Karabakh conflict, wrote an article on Aliq Media challenging the ministry’s narrative. Hakobyan, who has extensively documented the history and development of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, called the Foreign Ministry’s statement “partly misinformation and partly misleading.”
“In essence, Armenia’s foreign policy department is accusing the Stepanakert authorities of derailing negotiations,” Hakobyan wrote, before providing a comprehensive chronology of events that contradicts the ministry’s claims.
According to Hakobyan, following Armenia’s defeat in the 44-day war in 2020, the Artsakh authorities had engaged in multiple negotiations with Baku’s representatives, primarily facilitated by Russian peacekeepers. He documented numerous meetings between Artsakh President Araik Harutyunyan, Security Council Secretary Vitaly Balasanyan, and Azerbaijani representatives that addressed both technical and humanitarian issues.
Hakobyan detailed how in early 2023, Azerbaijan presented an ultimatum demanding the dismissal of State Minister Ruben Vardanyan. While Harutyunyan complied with this demand, Azerbaijan continued making new demands rather than pursuing cooperation. Additional meetings took place in February and March 2023, yet Azerbaijan maintained and even expanded the blockade of Artsakh.
Regarding international negotiations, Hakobyan revealed that in June 2023, Louis Bono, the U.S. State Department’s Senior Advisor for Caucasus Negotiations, proposed a meeting between Artsakh and Azerbaijani representatives in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Artsakh representatives insisted on informing Russia about this initiative, despite American requests for secrecy. When consulted, Russia expressed opposition to the meeting.
Hakobyan acknowledged that Artsakh representatives were reluctant to participate in the Sofia meeting following Russia’s negative response but emphasized they had proposed including diplomats from all three OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing states (Russia, France, and the US) in the talks.
A subsequent American proposal for talks in Bratislava, Slovakia in August was undermined when Azerbaijan arrested Vagif Khachatryan at the Hakari checkpoint. Khachatryan, a 68-year-old civilian from Nagorno-Karabakh, was detained by Azerbaijani authorities on July 29, 2023, while attempting to cross the Hakari bridge, which served as the sole corridor connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and was controlled by Russian peacekeepers following the 2020 ceasefire agreement. Azerbaijan accused Khachatryan of participating in the tragic Khojaly events of 1992, allegations he denied. Despite this setback, Artsakh representatives had still purchased airline tickets for the Bratislava meeting, showing their commitment to the negotiation process. Azerbaijan later rejected Stepanakert’s proposal to meet at the contact line and instead suggested Yevlakh, a city in Azerbaijan, as a meeting place.
Hakobyan emphasized that Artsakh was under complete blockade for more than nine months, with food supplies dwindling and the population facing starvation. “Azerbaijan understood that time was on its side and had little interest in negotiating when its bargaining position was strengthening with each passing day,” he wrote.
Azerbaijan presented three main demands, as outlined by Araik Harutyunyan in June 2023: dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh as a governance system; dissolution of the Defense Army and removal of armaments to Armenia; and a reintegration process.
“While the former authorities of Artsakh have made numerous mistakes since 1991,” Hakobyan concluded, “it is neither fair nor true to claim, as Armenia’s current government does, that in the final months before displacement, Artsakh authorities derailed negotiations, leading to the forced displacement.”
The Foreign Ministry’s statement has provoked intense anger beyond Hakobyan’s detailed rebuttal. Aram Abrahamyan, editor-in-chief of the Aravot daily newspaper, wrote on Facebook: “This is not the Foreign Ministry – this is the Civil Contract party’s propaganda department.”
Karen Harutyunyan, Editor-in-Chief of CivilNet, also reminded that it was the Armenian government that announced lowering the bar for Karabakh’s status in April 2022, and months later, in October, recognized Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, including Artsakh, during talks in Prague.
Harutyunyan further noted that shortly after Armenia recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan began the blockade of Karabakh, and it was Yerevan that refused to negotiate with Azerbaijan on lifting the blockade with Russia’s mediation.
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