At the "Building Peace and Multilateral Cooperation" conference held in Yerevan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that while the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is politically resolved, it continues on a socio-psychological level.
“I consider the agenda of internally displaced persons and refugees returning dangerous, because it means returning to the original parameters of the conflict. If we try to justify our current actions through history, it means we do not believe in peace,” he said, as reported by Radar Armenia.
The Prime Minister said that seeking historical justifications for today’s decisions reveals a lack of belief in peace.
“The defining factor in our relations has been conflict. Armenia and Azerbaijan gained independence amid conflict. This mindset still surfaces periodically in both countries through the media, public discourse, expert circles, and even at the leadership level. We must find the right approaches to engage with this phenomenon,” Pashinyan added, according to Sputnik Armenia.
He noted that peace remains a foreign concept for both Armenia and Azerbaijan since their independence, and neither society has had real experience living in peace.
On November 3, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared that “there is no Lake Sevan, only Lake Goycha,” and said Azerbaijanis must return to their “historic lands in present-day Armenia not by tanks, but by cars.”
