Pashinyan’s Debate Proposal Rejected by the Three Presidents
On December 23, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made a public statement. Prime Minister mentioned that since 1994, the negotiation process regarding Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) had focused on returning it to Azerbaijan. Following this, Pashinyan invited Armenia’s former presidents—Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Robert Kocharyan, and Serzh Sargsyan—to a debate to substantiate his claims.
In a video he posted, Pashinyan urged the former presidents to reconsider participating in the debate, stating that conclusions will inevitably be drawn, he added that he cannot allow the discussion, ongoing for over 4+2 years, to remain unresolved.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s spokesperson, Arman Musinyan, responded via a Facebook post:
It would be highly beneficial for our state and society if Nikol Pashinyan debated with himself first. I am confident that both sides of the debate would convincingly prove the other’s dishonesty. The outcome would remain unchanged.
Bagrat Mikoyan, the head of the second president’s office, also responded to Pashinyan’s proposal:
A debate requires the existence of a disputable topic. However, the fact that the surrender of Artsakh and Armenia’s sovereign territories is the personal ‘achievement’ of the current Prime Minister is an undeniable historical fact and evident to all reasonable people.
The office of the third president, Serzh Sargsyan, stated that debating the obvious is pointless:
Both before and after the current administration seized power, the entire history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement negotiations has been presented publicly and in detail thousands of times. Especially since the current leadership did everything to derail the negotiation process. If he is so eager to debate, we suggest he debate with the presidents of the co-chairing countries—Russia, the U.S., and France—who announced five times from 2009 to 2013 the negotiation format and principles upon which the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was to be resolved.
In his video, Pashinyan emphasized his determination to pursue the conversation to the end, though he did not specify the format. He stated that he chooses an honest approach by proposing a face-to-face dialogue with the former presidents. He urged them to accept the invitation, warning that otherwise, the conclusions would be left to the public, and he would assist the public in making those conclusions.