Azerbaijan not to give Armenia anything as Armenia`s authorities have  no agenda - ex-minister 

ArmInfo.It took Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan two years to analyze the messages  coming from Azerbaijan, former Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan wrote on his Facebook account. 

The diplomat recalled that Pashinyan admitted at the forum dedicated  to the "Crossroads of the World" on October 12 that "Azerbaijan wants  Armenia's roads to be usable for it, and at the same time, Armenia  continues to be blockaded. This seems like an absurd formulation, but  our analysis of Azerbaijani narratives shows this."

"Unfortunately, it took the country's Prime Minister more than two  years to make this "discovery." And what was the need for this  analysis when we have been warning for more than two years that  Azerbaijan would get the maximum for itself without giving Armenia  even the expected minimum? What Azerbaijan did is not absurd: it is  brazenly imposing its maximalist aspirations on the opposite side,  which is unable to protect its minimal interests," Oskanyan  emphasized.

At the same time, he called the negotiating abilities of the Armenian  government absurd. "A person may not have experience and knowledge,  but stubbornly ignore the warnings of people with many years of  experience. This is truly absurd. This is similar to the 2018  statement about the start of "negotiations from their point of view"  on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement," the diplomat said, adding that a  similar situation is unfolding today. 

Oskanyan noted that people with diplomatic experience have been  warning for two years that Azerbaijan will not give anything and will  snatch the maximum, because the current authorities have no agenda,  they say "yes" to everyone, without putting any demands on the  negotiating table. "When it was still possible to prevent the  complete destruction and depopulation of Artsakh, we said: give the  opportunity to negotiate to those people who, unlike your team, know  what negotiations are. After the de-Armenization of Artsakh, we  warned that Azerbaijan would not give you anything in return,  contrary to your expectations, and would demand the maximum for  itself. And again, stony silence. I am sure that this person was  convinced that we wanted to mislead him, that without putting forward  any demands on the negotiating table, he would achieve some result,"  Oskanyan noted.

At the same time, he added that he continues to insist that  Azerbaijan will not give Armenia anything and, yes, will put forward  absurd demands until the Armenian side can make any counter demands.

"I continue to insist that the demand for the return of the Arakh  people to the negotiating table will be understandable and acceptable  to all parties and players of the international community according  to all diplomatic rules. The best recent evidence is the resolution  adopted by the Foreign Relations Committee of the Swiss Parliament.

Moreover, voicing the demand for the return of the residents of  Artsakh to their homes is an urgent need, first of all, for the  security of Armenia, so that Azerbaijan stops "surprising" the  Armenian authorities with its absurd demands.

And I continue to insist that if the current authorities are not able  to form a negotiating agenda, then they should allow more capable  forces to do so," Oskanyan concluded.