YEREVAN. Feb 12 (Interfax) - Armenia is only open to a peaceful settlement of the Karabakh issue, but all parties to the conflict should aspire to create an atmosphere of peace, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday.
"We see only a peaceful settlement of the conflict, but this does not mean that Armenia should not be ready for a war. An atmosphere of peace should be established in order to resolve the issue. And there is no atmosphere of peace in the region today," Pashinyan said when replying to questions from members of parliament during the presentation of the government's five-year program.
All parties to the conflict should confirm that they are ready for peace, he said.
"They say 'prepare the peoples for peace,' rather than people. Therefore, if the government of one country is not preparing its people for peace, the government of the other country cannot prepare its people for peace. We will act proportionately to the situation," Pashinyan said.
The unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's full participation in negotiations is one of the most important objectives in negotiations on the settlement of the conflict, he said.
"We know that every time, the Azerbaijani side responds to proposals for the participation of Artsakh [the Armenian name of Nagorno-Karabakh] in negotiations: if the Armenian side involves Artsakh in negotiations, the Azerbaijani side, in turn, will involve representatives of the so-called Azerbaijani community of Karabakh as a party to negotiations," Pashinyan said.
"In reality, this stance needs requires serious explanation. The thing is that during this time, the Azerbaijani community of Karabakh has always participated and is now participating in the negotiating process, and there has been essentially no negotiating process in which the Azerbaijani community was not represented. How? Because the so-called Azerbaijani community of Karabakh participates in Azerbaijan's presidential and parliamentary elections, they are citizens of Azerbaijan, and, therefore, this community elects the Azerbaijani president and the authorities have the mandate to represent these people," Pashinyan said.
If the Azerbaijani side makes such statements, "that means it does not have the mandate to represent the interests of the so-called Azerbaijani community of Karabakh in the negotiating process," he said.
"If the leadership of Azerbaijan is not authorized to represent all of Azerbaijan and its people, then what mandate does this government even have to participate in talks? Our government explicitly states that we do not have the mandate and powers to represent Karabakh and its people at negotiations for the simple reason that the people of Karabakh do not vote in our elections," Pashinyan said.
"They have their own parliament and president who can represent the people. I believe these discussions on the involvement of representatives of Karabakh in the process of settling the Karabakh conflict are very serious progress, because I see very specific forms and methods for how the Republic of Artsakh could be involved in negotiations. And now we are at the stage of discussing these forms and methods. We will discuss them with our international partners," Pashinyan said.