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Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan has hailed the ongoing consultations with the Armenian authorities as a very honest and principled process aiming to achieve a final settlement in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

In an interview with Artsakhpress on Wednesday, Bako Sahakyan also re-emphasized the importance of returning Artsakh to the peace talks to avoid unnecessary speculations.

The full interview published by Artsakhpress is presented below:

- Mr. President, during a briefing with journalists today, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated that the leadership of Artsakh was unaware of the details of the negotiations over the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict settlement during the term of office of the former Armenian government. Was the official Stepanakert really unaware of those details? 

- When Nikol Pashinyan assumed the office of Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, the process of negotiations was one of the first issues that we discussed. I can view the discussions as sincere and of principle.

Recently, the Armenian PM provided me with some documents on the process of negotiations. In its turn, the Artsakh leadership transmitted its package of documents to the prime minister.

In general, in the past and now, the Armenian authorities would keep the leadership of Artsakh aware of the issues discussed and latest developments before and after negotiations with Azerbaijan.

Overall, I would like to emphasize that restoration of the full format of negotiations, that is, with the direct participation of Artsakh, is the best and perhaps the only opportunity to disallow speculations.

- Prime Minister Pashinyan also declared that there are certain conspirators and representatives of the government of Artsakh who urge their assistants to post comments on Facebook stating that Pashinyan is selling lands. What do you have to say about this?

- I have been asked similar questions, particularly during my meeting with members of the My Step faction of the National Assembly of Armenia and journalists on May 20 this year. I said if there are conspirators, they will be punished, and if anyone knows of specific people and has evidential facts of conspiracy, they should let us know about that, and we will take appropriate actions.

Unity is one of the major achievements of the Armenians, and I consider any step aimed at destroying that unity inadmissible, be it in Artsakh, Armenia or the Diaspora. If anyone has doubts about or lack of confidence in this or that phenomenon, person or official, I think it is important to discuss them and come to terms in an atmosphere of mutual respect. We have one homeland, and it's the duty of each and every Armenian to maintain national unity.