Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister reveals details of first Aliyev–Pashinyan contact in 2018

The first contact between the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, after the latter came to power, took place in September 2018 in Dushanbe. At that time, the President stated that the issue (the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict – ed.) must be resolved, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said in an interview with ITV.

According to Bayramov, Nikol Pashinyan"s position at that time was fairly constructive - he said: "I have just come to power and will take the necessary steps to settle the conflict."

"While in Dushanbe, Mr. President instructed the Ministry of Defense to ensure complete calm and stability in all directions. An agreement was reached with Nikol Pashinyan to establish a direct line of communication between the countries, and this line was created so that, in case of tensions, the sides could immediately take steps to ensure stability," the minister noted.

Jeyhun Bayramov added that some time after that meeting, Pashinyan changed his position:

"He even stated that if he took steps toward conflict resolution, he would be killed. He said, ‘Do you want me to be killed?" Mr. President responded that we don't wish death upon anyone.

The minister reminded that later, in 2019, Pashinyan declared: "Karabakh is Armenia, period."

"On July 10, 2020, a new national security concept of Armenia was prepared, which included provisions to consolidate the results of the First Karabakh War. Then, servicemen involved in the killing of Polad Hashimov were awarded. All of this crossed the red line. Later, a statement was made that Azerbaijan should negotiate with members of the so-called ‘Nagorno-Karabakh Republic." This meant the complete destruction of the entire negotiation system that had existed until that time," Jeyhun Bayramov emphasized.