Serzh Sargsyan says he saw 2019 Artsakh peace plan concealed by Armenian leadership

Former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said he personally saw the 2019 Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) peace proposal by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, which he claimed was concealed from both the Armenian public and the Artsakh leadership.

Speaking on the Imnemnimi podcast on Friday, Sargsyan said that Armenian authorities repeatedly denied the existence of the document, even as the foreign minister met with international mediators.

“I told the Artsakh leadership there was such a document and urged them to request it from the authorities. They were unaware and surprised,” Sargsyan recalled.

Sargsyan recalled that the Russian Foreign Ministry eventually confirmed the existence of the peace proposal in mid-2020. He said he personally saw it about eight or nine months ago and described it as a credible basis for talks, noting that it incorporated the three key principles long used in peace talks.

“If handled properly, the initial proposal would have developed into three separate documents,” he stated.

Sargsyan claimed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan denied the existence of the peace plan because he was unwilling to pursue compromise-based solutions.

“Without compromises, it was impossible to resolve the issue. The ‘no concessions’ attitude was destructive,” he argued.

Reflecting on the 2020 Artsakh war, Sargsyan said that had he been in power, he would have responded as he did during the April 2016 clashes by immediately placing the armed forces on full combat readiness and taking preventive defensive measures. He described the loss of key air-defense systems in the first hours of the war as “inconceivable,” asserting that timely action could have disrupted or even prevented Azerbaijan’s offensive.