Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan answered a number of questions of factor.am:

– Mr. Grigoryan, we have learned that Armenia, in response to Azerbaijan’s five points on peace negotiations, submitted its proposals consisting of six points. You said that the international community and Baku already have an understanding that negotiations should take place on this 5+6 agenda – the proposals of Baku and Yerevan. Could you please clarify what are the 6 proposals of Yerevan?

– Here it’s important not to pay attention to the figures, but the context of what is important for Armenia. According to the five points proposed by Azerbaijan, the issues of protecting the rights and security of Nagorno-Karabakh and our compatriots living there have not been touched upon. Our main answer was about this. We proposed to combine the package of proposals of Azerbaijan and Armenia and start peace talks. As I noted yesterday, both the international community and Baku have the understanding that our two packages should be combined and peace talks should begin.

– Is there the element of Artsakh’s self-determination in Armenia’s proposals?

– As I have already noted, the proposals mention the issue of security and rights, and also from the point of view of self-determination there is also the issue of status, we should give an opportunity to resolve these issues, but we also note that it is security and rights that will determine status, and in this regard we expect more intensive discussions to understand how institutional rights will be protected and security will be ensured.

– Mr. Grigoryan, the authorities are being criticized about not having program, vision for solving the Artsakh issue. Could you please present more openly and honestly which option is acceptable for you? For example, can this option be acceptable for Armenia: let’s suppose that as a result of the negotiations, the international community gives high guarantees of the security and rights of the Artsakh people and offers specific mechanisms to ensure them, will Armenia be satisfied with these guarantees and consider that Artsakh can be safe, but at the same time left as part of Azerbaijan? Will this option be acceptable?

– We have always said that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is not a territorial problem, but a problem of protection and security of the Armenians living there. Armenia recognized the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan back in 1992. And we have repeatedly said that Armenia has no territorial claims against Azerbaijan, Armenia has concerns that the security and rights of Armenians living in the Nagorno-Karabakh are not protected, the process that has been going on for the last 30 years is aimed at obtaining these guarantees. It is difficult to give a complete answer to the question now, but first we need to see these guarantees. We need clear guarantees.