Former Armenian authorities never proposed unilateral concessions – Bako Sahakyan

In an interview with Tert.am, former President of the Nagorno-Karbakh (Artsakh) Republic Bako Sahakyan elaborated on the relationship between the governments of his country and Armenia in the context of the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

Mr. President, since the [end of the] 2020 war, it has been frequently stated that especially after the 2016 April War, discussions were held between the Armenian and Artsakh authorities over the possible scenarios of the Karabakh peace process and the possible solutions. What were the discussions centered around?

We discussed very different issues dealing with Artsakh and the developments around Artsakh. After the 2016 military actions, considerable efforts were invested in all the directions foreign policy and security in an effort to push ahead with the interests of Artsakh to ensure the right positioning in the negotiations process, preventing the resumption of military actions and bringing Artsakh into a phase of development and security strengthening.

Mr. President, has the negotiation process ever seen any scenario that could have been imposed upon the authorities of Artsakh by the former Armenian authorities. To put it directly, did the former Armenian authorities impose unilateral concessions on Artsakh, particularly in terms of territorial concessions?

Let me state immediately, no. The former Armenian authorities never proposed unilateral [territorial concession]; nothing of the kind was ever considered.

Our cooperation and dialogue with the Armenian authorities was honest, straightforward and constructive, and any discussion was held in an environment of mutual respect and confidence.

Both before and after the April military actions, the Armenian leadership permanently shared its positions with us on different issues of the negotiations process, but they were not aimed at coercing anything, but rather keeping us informed and listening to our position.