Author: Zaal Margvelashvili, Research Fellow at the Levan Mikeladze Diplomatic Training and Research Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia

November 2020

On 1st of November of 2020, with the mediation of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and the Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev, signed a declaration regarding “a complete ceasefire and end to all hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone”. President Vladimir Putin confirmed the signing of the aforementioned declaration.
The declaration came after 6 weeks of military confrontation, virtually confirming Azerbaijan’s military victory, the signing of which forced the Armenian party to make significant territorial concessions. Furthermore, as per the agreement, Russia took upon itself the responsibilities of a peacekeeper, deploying 2 000, appropriately equipped, military personnel to Nagorno-Karabakh to act as a peacekeeping force.
All of this led to outrage in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. In protest to the signing of the aforementioned agreement, a sizable group of furious demonstrators rushed the building of parliament of Armenia in Yerevan, along with buildings of government administration. As a result of the assault infrastructure of said institutions was damaged, with the speaker of Armenia’s parliament, Ararat Mirzoyan, receiving grievous bodily harm. 17 opposition parties demanded the resignation of the Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, and his government, however, the Prime Minister’s party retains the majority of seats in parliament.
The statement made by the Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan reads thusly: “I took a difficult, a rather difficult, decision both personally for me as well as for all of us. The text of the declaration, that was published, is painful for me and for our people. I took this decision due to a deep analysis of the military situation, based on the judgement of those individuals, who have a good insight into the military situation on the ground. The decision is also based on the belief that this would have been the best possible outcome under the arisen circumstances. This is not a victory, but neither is it a defeat, not as long as you don’t recognise yourself as being defeated. We will never see ourselves as defeated and this is precisely what should be at the foundation of our national unification and renaissance”.