Samvel Babayan, former Secretary of the Security Council and former Minister of Defense of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh expressed concerns about the peace treaty expected to be signed with Azerbaijan. He claimed that the Armenian authorities are “packaging” the treaty in a way that, in his view, could lead to future conflicts. According to Babayan, the authorities may perceive it as a move for peace. However, he argues that it could be interpreted as a delay of conflict from one generation to the next.

“I say: if there are literate, thinking people in Azerbaijan so that our [two] peoples, who have been fighting each other for 300 years, do not continue to fight for another 300 years, we should play our 'game.' For so long, we have not decided; the superpowers have decided, which have promoted their interests. I propose that we play our 'game' in coordination with Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan needs to realize that Artsakh should be an autonomous republic, that people [should] return, there [should] be peace, the two peoples [should] reconcile. The region [should] follow the path of economic, political, and logistic integration; this is our future,” added Samvel Babayan.