Pashinyan: Armenia was aware of Türkiye’s participation in the Karabakh war

According to Isna, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in a press conference held on Saturday evening, rejected the accusations against Armenia due to its military-technical cooperation with France and India and said that Armenia, like the Republic of Azerbaijan, has the right to modernize. Cooperate your weapons with your partners and allies.

Modernization of the Armenian army and the issue of cooperation with transregional partners

He stated: For example, we are accused of having military-technical cooperation with France and India. In Azerbaijan, it is said that countries outside the region, namely France, are supplying weapons to Armenia. But it is clear and it is not a secret that Azerbaijan, for example, is buying weapons from Italy. This country is adjacent to France. Why can Azerbaijan buy weapons from Italy, but Armenia cannot buy weapons from France? Azerbaijan has received a large amount of weapons from Israel.

He stated that it is not fair to accuse Armenia in a situation where Armenia is constantly threatened.

In addition, he said that he suggested establishing bilateral arms control mechanisms (between Azerbaijan and Armenia).

The Prime Minister of Armenia stated: I have said many times that every country has the right to have a strong and ready army. In international law and the UN Charter, the right to have an army and self-defense is an inalienable right. Every country has the right to defend itself, and this right of countries cannot be discussed, because international laws have also assigned the duty of protecting citizens to countries.

He added that the ongoing reforms in the Armenian army are only for this purpose.

The issue of some contradictions in the constitution of Armenia and Azerbaijan with the provisions of the peace treaty

Pashinyan also said that the constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan includes territorial claims against Armenia. Although, Armenia does not want to change it at this stage; The agreed clauses in the draft peace treaty will resolve this issue.

Pashinyan pointed to Azerbaijan’s accusations against the Armenian constitution and said: “Baku claims that the Armenian constitution contains territorial claims against Azerbaijan, because the preamble of this legal document refers to the “Declaration of Independence”, which refers to the 1988 decision to unify Nagorno-Karabakh. It refers to Karabakh and Armenia.

According to him, the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, unlike the Constitution of Armenia, includes territorial claims against Armenia.

Pashinyan added that Armenia does not raise the issue of changing the constitution of Azerbaijan because the draft peace treaty includes a clause agreed by the parties, which says that Baku and Yerevan cannot raise the issue of each other’s internal laws in order to not implement the provisions of the treaty.

He said that if Armenia were to ask the Republic of Azerbaijan to change its constitution, this would mean bringing the whole issue (peace treaty) to a standstill.

Türkiye’s role in the Karabakh war

In another part of this News conference, Pashinyan said that the Armenian intelligence services were aware of Turkey’s intervention in this war in response to the statements of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July, who acknowledged the participation of Turkish military in the second Karabakh war.

The Prime Minister of Armenia also said that in the current situation, he does not want to talk about this issue due to some positive developments in Armenian-Turkish relations.

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