Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed the people with a message:
"Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia, the summit held at the White House on August 8, 2025, hosted by US President Donald Trump, is a turning point.
In the presence of the US President, myself, and the President of Azerbaijan, the Foreign Ministers initialed the "Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan," as well as a joint application to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Process and related structures.
We adopted the Joint Declaration of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia on the results of the meeting held in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States of America, which President Trump also signed.
The Declaration contains essential agreements. The President of Azerbaijan and I recognized the need to continue further actions towards the signing and final ratification of the Peace Agreement. We emphasized the importance of maintaining and strengthening Peace between our two countries.
We reaffirmed the importance of opening up communications between the two countries for domestic, bilateral, and international transport, based on respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and jurisdiction of states, to promote Peace, stability, and prosperity in the region and its vicinity. These efforts will include unhindered communication between the central part of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic through the territory of the Republic of Armenia, with mutual benefits for the Republic of Armenia in terms of international and domestic communications.
Note: Opening up communications between the two countries for domestic, bilateral, and international transport, based on respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and jurisdiction of states. Unhindered communication between the central part of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic through the territory of the Republic of Armenia, with mutual benefits for the Republic of Armenia in terms of international and domestic communications.
The Declaration stated that the Republic of Armenia will work with the United States of America and mutually agreed upon third parties to define the framework for the implementation of the Trump Way Forward for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP) communication program on the territory of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, our determination to take all measures in good faith to achieve this goal as quickly as possible was emphasized.
We also recognized with the President of Azerbaijan the need to chart a path for a bright future, not predetermined by the conflict of the past, by the Charter of the United Nations and the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration. We declared that, after a conflict that caused untold human suffering, conditions have finally been created for our peoples to begin good-neighborly relations based on the principles of the inviolability of international borders and the inadmissibility of the use of force to acquire territory. We have noted that this reality, which is not subject to and should never be subject to revision, paves the way for closing the page of hostility between our two peoples. We resolutely rejected and ruled out any attempt at revenge now and in the future.
Dear people, what I said is no longer news, and has been at the core of our most active public-political-expert discussions over the past 10 days. But now, in this message, I consider it necessary to assess what those mentioned above and quoted means in practice, what is the political meaning and significance of what happened.
Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia, Peace has been established between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan. Dear people, Peace has been established between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Of course, the role of US President Donald Trump and his administration in this matter is invaluable. This is why we, together with the President of Azerbaijan, have decided to submit a joint application to the International Nobel Committee to award Mr. Trump the Nobel Peace Prize.
However, after August 8, we will be living in a completely different, new South Caucasus and a new Republic of Armenia, and this reality must be acknowledged. I say this because it is not easy to realize, given that it's an unfamiliar situation and reality for us.
We, the citizens of the Third Republic, do not know what Peace is; we do not know what it means to live in Peace, to work in Peace. It is an unfamiliar feeling for us, because from the first day of our independence, we have lived in an atmosphere of conflict, in a situation of war or "no war, no peace".
People have certainly dreamed of Peace, but on the other hand, those who use the word peace have often been judged and criticized. And so, Peace is an unfamiliar consciousness and reality for us. It is an unfamiliar and thus alien life for us, and please let us not underestimate this reality. This reality means that we must learn practically from scratch what it means to live in Peace, to know what Peace means, what it is, and what it looks like.
It is when you think about this that you understand that Peace will have such a look and image, such a look and image that we will convey to them, such a way that we will build and create it, of course, with Azerbaijan, and not alone.
But it is also a fact that established Peace requires daily care and concern, just as a newborn baby requires daily care and concern, and not just a newborn child, just as a newly built and newly inhabited house requires daily care and concern, just as a new and beloved car requires daily care.
Of course, a child's well-being depends not only on its parents, but also on the state of the healthcare, educational, and legal systems, neighborhood, and others. The condition of the house depends not only on us, but also on the weather, utilities, and external factors like earthquakes, storms, or floods. Similarly, the condition of our car depends not only on us, but also on other road users and external factors such as the work of the police and road builders.
But none of us has the right not to take maximum care of our children, justifying this with a lack of trust in the educational, healthcare or legal system, not taking care of our own home for any reason excludes well-being and family peace, the behavior of any erratic driver cannot be justified by the argument that traffic is very chaotic these days.
Such is the Peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan, established on August 8 with the support of US President Donald Trump. And we must take daily care of that Peace.
This is a new life and we must live our new life in a new way, according to the New Testament saying that new wine is not put into old wineskins, as it is said in the Testament: "otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined; but new wine is put into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
Our lives, our daily lives, our speech, our reality are so permeated with conflict and war that we must manage even the risk of our reality and Peace clashing. This is a delicate, extremely delicate socio-psychological, public-political, managerial-economic work that we must do together, each in our place, to our extent, but together, with all, with the people, with everyone.
Even our way of venerating and sanctifying our martyrs, of relating to their memory, must change drop by drop, millimeter by millimeter, because Peace must comfort parents who have lost children, widowed women, husbands who have lost wives, and children who have lost parents. Peace should illuminate the souls of our martyrs, because here is the Republic of Armenia, as an increasingly authoritative participant in international life, a more independent, more sovereign, more self-confident state, this is the goal for which our brothers and sisters fell, and we must overcome the grief of their sacrifice with the joy of Peace. Our Christian-apostolic faith tells us that they are not dead, but are here right now, above our heads and smiling at us, because the future of the Republic of Armenia has come, about which we reached an agreement in 2021 before the bodies of our martyrs had yet to freeze.
Here is that future, and that future is today, and with daily care for Peace, we will strengthen, develop, and flourish that future, which we should never look for in tomorrow, but should see in today.
Our most common question in our reality or the appeal that we use the most, "will it be okay" or the question "will it be okay?", should be left to the past, because "will it be okay" is being replaced by "it's okay," expressed peacefully.
Dear people, as a result of the Washington agreements, the Republic of Armenia is being lifted from the blockade after more than 30 years of blockade, a result that I think could have been considered unimaginable in the not-so-distant past.
Various questions are being raised about how and under what regulations the communication channels between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be opened, that is, what the opening of the roads will look like, which is also an unfamiliar phenomenon for us.
The text of the Washington Declaration fully answers this question: territorial integrity, sovereignty, jurisdiction, and inviolability of borders. These are the principles within the framework of which the opening of the roads between Armenia and Azerbaijan should take place.
This means that the restoration and construction of communication routes are necessary. First of all, the state border between Armenia and Azerbaijan must be clarified, demarcated, and demarcated. And the border already has its mandatory attributes: border guards, customs posts, and so on. Furthermore, even at the time of the "Crossroads of Peace" project presentation and to this day, we have consistently expressed our readiness to simplify border crossings. This issue should be the subject of a detailed discussion shortly.
And does this not open the door to new concerns for us? Not, because the third point of the Washington Declaration also enshrines the principle of reciprocity, and this is a guarantee that we will find balanced and mutually acceptable solutions with Azerbaijan. These agreements at the global level, as I have already mentioned, are enshrined in the Washington Declaration.
The above-mentioned principles of lifting the blockade of Armenia are further strengthened by the bilateral memorandum related to the "Crossroads of Peace" project, which President Trump and I signed on August 8, in a bilateral format. This memorandum records the US interest in the Armenian Government's "Crossroads of Peace" project and the United States' desire to invest in it, within the framework of the principles of Armenia's territorial integrity, sovereignty, and inviolability of its borders.
The "Crossroads of Peace" project and this memorandum led to the "Trump Path to International Peace and Prosperity" program, which promises significant investments, financial benefits, economic development, and a further increase in the role of the Republic of Armenia.
As a result of the implementation of this program, international railways, highways, pipelines, and power lines will pass through the territory of our country. This program becomes one of the essential parts of the "Crossroads of Peace" project. With all this, Armenia becomes a Crossroads of Peace.
I am glad that the concerns of a number of our regional partners regarding this program have now been dispelled. However, we will continue to work with them in an atmosphere of partnership and transparency.
Dear people, dear citizens,
In the last 10 days, numerous questions have arisen: when will Armenia and Azerbaijan recognize each other's territorial integrity, what has happened, and what will happen to the more than 200 square kilometers of the occupied territories of the Republic of Armenia?
With the Washington Declaration and the initialed Agreement, Armenia and Azerbaijan recognized the inviolability and territorial integrity of each other's borders based on the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1991. This means that the parties acknowledge that today the territory of the Republic of Armenia is identical to the territory of the Armenian SSR, and today the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan is similar to the territory of the Azerbaijani SSR.
This reality must be resolved in the demarcation process. But the logic of Peace, the new logic, is that when we say that there are sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia that are currently under Azerbaijani control, we must also say that there are sovereign territories of Azerbaijan that are under our control. This mutual issue must be resolved in the process of demarcation.
Dear people, dear citizens: I know that this emphasis, this kind of emphasis, may sound strange to our ears, and may perhaps cause irritation, but this is the new logic of Peace, this is the new wine that we must pour into new bottles. We must examine our reality and the region as a whole with a new perspective, because this is the care that we must take for Peace.
Dear people, dear citizens,
On August 11, the initialed text of the "Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and Interstate Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan" was published, and the conspiracy theories that had been woven around it for several years collapsed like a house of cards as a result of that publication. Our citizens have accepted the initial text of the Agreement with satisfaction. Of course, there are also substantive criticisms.
The first of them concerns the failure to include the issue of our compatriots held in prison in Azerbaijan in the text of the Peace Agreement.
Negotiations on the text of the Peace Agreement began in the spring of 2022, and we have made serious efforts to include this issue in the Agreement. However, as the negotiations progressed, we came to realize that including the issue of our compatriots held in captivity in Azerbaijan in the Agreement's text could be interpreted as implying that their return would be a matter for consideration after the Agreement's signing and ratification. We were not, and are not, guided by this assumption. As a result of not being guided by that assumption, 58 of our compatriots have returned from captivity since the start of negotiations on the Peace Agreement's text. If the issue had been left to the Peace Agreement, this outcome might not have occurred, and it is doubtful. Now, enormous diplomatic work is being done to resolve this issue as quickly as possible, as you recently witnessed.
The second substantive criticism is that the Karabakh issue is closed with the initialed text of the Peace Agreement.
In response to this criticism, I must remind you that back in March 2025, I made a statement on that occasion from the high rostrum of the National Assembly, and later, I addressed the people with a strange appeal for the Prime Minister. I stated that we should not continue the Karabakh movement. I also said that I would lead Armenia based on this logic. If the people disagree with this logic, I called on them to make a revolution.
The people, that is, you, dear citizens, did not make a revolution because you, like me, understood that Peace is impossible without resolving the Karabakh issue. Specifically, specific forces have exploited this issue to prevent Armenia from achieving independence, sovereignty, and statehood.
As for our compatriots displaced from Karabakh, I have publicly stated more than once that I do not consider their ideas about return to be realistic. And in general, the bilateral discussion of the topic of return of those who have become refugees since the start of the conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan is a dangerous factor that damages the Peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Bilateral attempts to discuss these topics will not benefit the refugees themselves, but will become a new source of tension between the states. I have also shared this understanding with the official Baku. And I note that yes, it is a dangerous and harmful topic for the new Peace.
My perception is that all those people who disagree with this strategy, willy-nilly, find themselves in the logic of reviving the conflict. Many conflicts, including the Karabakh conflict, began with the raising of humanitarian, cultural, seemingly innocent, and simple issues, but what they turned into, we remember and, unfortunately, we have all experienced on our skin.
Our vision for the future of our compatriots displaced from Karabakh is as follows: with the support of both our nation and the international community, they should settle in the Republic of Armenia, where they can live, create, and establish themselves as full citizens.
Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
The initialing and publication of the text of the Peace Agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Washington Summit, its results, the adopted Declaration, and the Peace established as a result have many layers that cannot be explained in one message. On August 8 and 9, I gave an extensive interview in Washington, DC, and then answered questions from the Armenian media in the format of a press conference, but that did not suffice, because as I said, the reality of Peace is slowly being perceived, it brings up new perspectives, new nuances, new and old questions, which, rest assured, I will not miss any opportunity to address in detail shortly, I will create those opportunities myself.
But the key message of my message today is that Peace has come, it is a dignified, state-centered, people-centered, region-centered peace, and I am more than excited by that fact.
In the 34-year history of our state, we have usually viewed all foreign policy and diplomatic milestones in the context of victory or defeat and resolutions. In our attempts to understand diplomatic and foreign policy relationships, we have consistently sought to assess whether they are victories or defeats.
Dear people, I must dare to say that this is a misunderstanding of reality, because if you are between the choice of victory and defeat, that is, your choice is either victory or defeat, your defeat is inevitable, because you can win once, twice, three times, even five or ten times. Still, in the end, your defeat is unavoidable, and you will inevitably lose, because it is impossible to win endlessly.
Another thing is the formula of mutual consent, which promises success to all parties who agree. The Washington Agreements, accordingly, are a success for Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the United States. This is a piece of mutual consent and mutual benefit, and this formula makes Peace reliable, stable, and lasting.
It makes our state, our independence, and sovereignty reliable, stable, and lasting. It makes our prosperity and happiness realistic, which is the strategy of all our strategies, the dream of all dreams.
This Peace is the triumph of the ideology of the Real Armenia. This ideology is unique in our history in that it was not formulated by the elites and imposed on the people, but was formulated by the people, formulated by the representatives of the people, and is brought to life by the people, by everyone.
The Real Armenia in a peaceful region and the real world: this is the formula for the permanence of our statehood.
Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,
Peace has been established, and our task is to maintain and institutionalize it over time.
Glory to the martyrs and long live the Republic of Armenia.
Long live independence, long live sovereignty, long live statehood.
And long live us and our children, who live and will live in a Free and Happy Armenia.
Thank you
