Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan referred to the international community's perception regarding the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and the exclusion of Karabakh from the negotiation process. According to him, 4 of the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council, the OSCE Minsk Group countries, have expressed a position that Nagorno-Karabakh can receive high autonomy within Azerbaijan.
He also noted that the removal of Karabakh from the negotiation process took place at the initiative of Robert Kocharyan. OSCE Minsk Group French Co-Chairman Bernard Fassier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Armenia's First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, and Robert Kocharian himself testified to this on April 3, 2004, while answering the questions of the readers of "Golos Armenii" newspaper.
"The fact that NK was a full party to the negotiations at the time Robert Kocharian became president is proven by the fact that in November 1998, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group presented the package of the so-called common state for the settlement of the NK conflict not only to RA and Azerbaijan, but also to NK to At that time, Kocharyan was the president of Armenia for five months, but this was the last package that the co-chairs presented to Nagorno-Karabakh. Negotiations are going on," he said.