The main takeaway from the yesterday's meeting in Berlin between Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is that Scholz backed the right of Karabakh Armenians to self-determination.

"There needs to be a peaceful settlement in terms of the territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh citizens’ right to self-determination. These principles are equally applicable,” Scholz said at the joint news conference.

The Armenian government issued the following transcript of their remarks.

Chancellor Scholz:   

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to welcome the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan in Berlin today. Today we had a very good intensive exchange of ideas about deepening the relationship. You have followed and seen that Prime Minister Pashinyan has started a process of comprehensive reforms in his country. We want to continue helping Armenia within our capabilities on this path. We took an important step last year, Germany resumed development cooperation with Armenia. At the European level, we are working within the framework of the Eastern Partnership to help on the path of reform here as well.

We also talked about Russia's war of aggression and its considerable impact on Ukraine, as well as Armenia and the South Caucasus.

I realize that Armenia particularly feels this impact. That is why it is more important that Armenia and Azerbaijan go step by step to a long-term solution. The Prime Minister presented me with the latest developments in Nagorno Karabakh, we are concerned about the instability on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the worsening humanitarian situation in Nagorno Karabakh. The status quo cannot continue, and a long-term solution should be achieved for the good of the people.

In this regard, it is necessary to reach a peaceful settlement from the point of view of the territorial integrity of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the self-determination of the citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh. Moreover, all these principles are equal.

Germany supports the mediation efforts of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and we have done the same by sending our personnel as part of the EU observation mission. Moreover, a German federal police officer will lead that mission.

We exchanged ideas about the quadrilateral meeting held in Prague, we also touched on trade and economic relations. Germany is the most important trade and economic partner in the European Union, in this context I asked the Prime Minister and encourage him to continue his fight against corruption. We touched on other issues as well. I thank the Prime Minister for his visit. I am sure that in the future we will have many other questions and will discuss them."

Nikol Pashinyan:

 First, I would like to thank my colleague Olaf Scholz for his warm welcome and meaningful and productive discussions.

Our delegation and I noted with satisfaction that there is a high level of political dialogue between Armenia and Germany. Our relations are actively developing both bilaterally and multilaterally, as evidenced by recent high-level mutual visits and active contacts.

We discussed issues related to Armenia-Germany trade and economic cooperation. We attached importance to the continuous efforts of both sides in the direction of maintaining the positive dynamics of growth of trade turnover and encouraging mutual investments.

Armenia attaches great importance to the inclusion of Armenia as a bilateral partner within the BMZ 2030 reform strategy of the German Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation, which provides an excellent opportunity to ensure the stable continuity of current reforms and programs in Armenia.

We referred to Armenian-German financial and technical cooperation, the activities of the German international cooperation agencies GIZ and KFW in Armenia. We hope that the opening of KfW and GIZ local offices soon will be a new impetus for the development of cooperation between the two countries.

Germany and Armenia have a long experience of cooperation in the field of environmental protection, in the conditions of the changing climate, we are interested in developing this cooperation in the fields of water resources management, forest restoration and renewable energy. We are also interested in the development of "green hydrogen".

I should note with satisfaction that effective cooperation between the two countries is developing in the field of science and education. There is effective cooperation between Armenian and German universities and individual scientists, which has great potential for development.

Joint cultural events and contacts between people are also extremely important.

During our meeting, we also touched upon the inter-parliamentary cooperation, noting with satisfaction, in particular, the active contacts and visits of the parliamentarians during the last few years.

Decentralized cooperation also plays an important role in bilateral relations, where we have already established many examples of cooperation.

We both emphasized that there is a great development potential in the relations between Armenia and Germany and we expressed our willingness to consistently cooperate with joint efforts in forming a new, more ambitious agenda.

Armenia-EU partnership was also on the agenda of our meeting. We emphasized the importance of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, which opens new prospects for cooperation with EU member states in bilateral format.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to once again express our gratitude to the German government for supporting the decision to deploy a new EU long-term monitoring mission in Armenia and express my belief that this mission will play a significant role in establishing peace and security in the region. I also personally thanked Chancellor Scholz, because I know that his personal contribution to making that decision was very big.

Dear attendees,

One of the key topics of our discussions was, as the Chancellor said, the security situation in the South Caucasus and the challenges facing Armenia.

After signing the declaration on November 9, 2020, Armenia spared no effort to achieve the normalization of relations with Azerbaijan and ensure the rights and security of the people of Nagorno Karabakh. Unfortunately, instead of participating in negotiations in good faith, the Azerbaijani side continues its unconstructive policy, threatens Armenia's democracy, undermining our government's efforts to establish peace, stability and security in the South Caucasus.

Today, the most urgent issue is that since December 12, 2022 the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia and the outside world, the Lachin Corridor, has been closed by Azerbaijan, because of which 120,000 residents have found themselves in a blockade. These actions of Azerbaijan in 2020 It is a gross violation of the obligations assumed by the tripartite declaration of November 9, which is a part of the large-scale and systematic policy of Azerbaijan aimed at the ethnic cleansing of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is also important to emphasize that we think it could be very important to send an international fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh for a more comprehensive introduction to the situation of the international community. These actions of Azerbaijan are a gross violation of the obligations assumed by the trilateral declaration of November 9, 2020, which is a part of the large-scale and systematic policy of Azerbaijan aimed at the ethnic cleansing of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. It’s also important to underline that we think it could be very important to send an international fact-finding mission to the Lachin Corridor and Nagorno-Karabakh for the international community to get a more comprehensive understanding of the situation.

I must stress that on February 22 the International Court of Justice made a legally binding decision for Azerbaijan, obliging it to take all necessary measures to ensure the uninterrupted movement of people, vehicles and cargo in both directions through the Lachin Corridor.

We call on our international partners to take active steps to ensure the immediate implementation of the court's decision by Azerbaijan.

We attach importance to the clear position of Germany, a country of democracy, protection of human rights and preservation of universal values, which will support Armenia's efforts towards stability and peace in the South Caucasus.

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