Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in a Facebook post today, said he had agreed, in principle, to have former Armenian presidents Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Robert Kocharyan leave for Moscow to see if Russia could play a diplomatic role in ending the ongoing war in Karabakh.

Pashinyan writes that the plan to send the former presidents to Moscow was the result of an October 20 proposal, made by former Artsakh Presidents Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan, calling for a meeting of all current and former leaders of the two Armenian states in a show of unity during the war.

“I said that I was not against the idea. I would even provide the state plane. Let them leave, have meetings, return,” Pashinyan writes.

Pashinyan writes that a problem arose when the two former Artsakh presidents asked him to have Russian President Putin receive Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan as his “special envoys”.

“I used to talk to Putin constantly, sometimes five or six times a day. If he had asked me why I needed special envoys, what should I have answered?” writes Pashinyan.

Pashinyan writes that the two former Artsakh presidents also wanted Armenia’s Foreign Minister to get in touch with Russian FM Lavrov and haver him accept Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan as special envoys.

Pashinyan writes that such machinations were diplomatically unacceptable.

“I offered another option. Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan would pay a formal visit to Moscow as former presidents and would be the guests of retired Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is also the Deputy Speaker of the Russian Security Council. Arkady Ghukasyan and Bako Sahakyan left, promising to discuss this option with Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan.”

Pashinyan writes that Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan balked at the idea.

“Bako Sahakyan, out of the blue, told me that Ter-Petrosyan and Kocharyan had arranged to meet Lavrov. If that was the case, what did they want from me? If they’d agreed to go, let them.”

Hetq – The two former Armenian presidents never went to Russia. Kocharyan tested positive for the coronavirus. A Yerevan court allowed him to leave for Moscow even though he faces charges of usurpation of state power during the March 2008 post-election protests in Yerevan, in addition to bribe taking. He was released on 2 billion AMD ($4.167m) bail this June.