MP: Disclosure of Karabakh peace proposals would reveal why talks failed

Opposition MP Tigran Abrahamyan claims the disclosure of full negotiation packages would shed light on why and how the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks failed and eventually escalated into war in 2020.

In a social media post on Thursday, Abrahamyan, secretary of the Pativ Unem faction, pointed to the peace proposals from the mediating countries in 2019, a year before the outbreak of hostilities, which remain largely undisclosed.

His remarks came a day after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the publication of documents concerning the Karabakh conflict is under review, with the authorities assessing the potential harm it could pose to Armenia’s national interests.

“Initially, the authorities denied the existence of such documents. Later, after confirmation by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, officials were forced to acknowledge them only to downplay their significance, rather than discuss their content,” Abrahamyan wrote.

“[Former President] Serzh Sargsyan has repeatedly called on the current leadership to disclose the full set of negotiation materials, including the 2019 documents, especially in response to the Armenian leader’s blatant misrepresentation of the Artsakh negotiation process. Yet the authorities have consistently rejected it, citing various shallow justifications,” the MP stressed.

He claimed that the disclosure of the documents would allow a more objective assessment of the three-decade-long negotiation process and help better understand why and how the peace process collapsed, leading to the 2020 war.