During the question and answer session in the de-facto Karabakh Parliament on July 3, Arayik Harutyunyan, the de-facto President of the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh, stated that Azerbaijan is demanding the dissolution of its Defense Army as a precondition for commencing negotiations with Nagorno-Karabakh representatives.

"They [Azerbaijani authorities] are ready to give us gas and electricity, but we have to go to Baku for this. Question: why not go to Baku? Because Baku is discussing with us today only one topic - integration. They say [in the opposition]: let’s go, we will persuade. I tried, I tried for two years, if someone finds that I was a bad negotiator, then lately I haven’t been negotiating, but they still don’t give a result," he said.

Harutyunyan stated that Baku is promoting this agenda not only at previous meetings with representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh but at the talks between the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Washington, which are devoted to the development of an agreement on peace and the establishment of interstate relations.

"Azerbaijan tells us: the first point to sit down at the negotiating table is the dissolution of the Defense Army. Well, let's go - disband the army and go to negotiations. And the sequence will be as follows: we dissolve the army, dissolve the state system of government, and create a mechanism for community elections, after which they will give gas and electricity and allow them to travel along the (Lachin) road, but already as citizens of Azerbaijan," Harutyunyan said while noting that he not against negotiations, but you need to understand that there will be problems, so the defense capability of Nagorno-Karabakh should be increased.

Notably, in mid-June, the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that the United States had given the Armenians of Karabakh an ultimatum, warning them that failure to negotiate on Azerbaijan's terms would result in the use of force. Official Moscow quickly expressed worry over the news, and Maria Zakharova virtually accused Washington of using threats and blackmail.