On September 6, Edmond Marukyan, former Armenian Ambassador-at-Large and the leader of the opposition Enlightened Armenia party, shared his critical views on the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process and Yerevan's foreign policy. 

Marukyan stated, "After the military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh and the ethnic cleansing of its indigenous population, the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process has reached a dead end." He characterized the current negotiations as "purely formal" and "decorative," arguing that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved. 

"The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be considered resolved in any way, and therefore, the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process is something where terms are dictated with a gun to your head," Marukyan explained. He criticized the process for ignoring crucial issues such as the “unresolved conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the rights of 150,000 Armenian refugees from the region, Baku's refusal to officially recognize Armenia’s territorial integrity, the absence of an agreed border delimitation map, and unresolved matters regarding the unblocking of communications.”

Marukyan also expressed concerns about Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's recent announcement to shift Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations to a bilateral format without mediators, calling it "Azerbaijan's perennial demand." He argued that this approach does not serve Armenia’s interests and leads to unilateral concessions.

Regarding the November 9, 2020 statement, which ended the second Karabakh war and was agreed upon by the leaders of Armenia, Russia, and Azerbaijan, Marukyan proposed three options for Yerevan: demand the fulfillment of all points, including the return of the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh and the opening of the Lachin corridor; denounce the trilateral statement through a legal process; or reinterpret the document. He criticized Armenia's current approach, which he described as "unsuccessful and escalatory."

He acknowledged that Armenian-Russian relations are currently strained, so Marukyan called for discussions with Russian partners to address the challenges. He noted that there is no crisis in the economic relationship and expressed optimism that the broader issues can be resolved. "We definitely don’t have a crisis in the economic component, and the rest of the crisis cannot last so long. It should be resolved and settled, taking into account our passed path, with a combination of mutual interests. I think there are no insoluble problems here," Marukyan stated.

Marukyan also voiced support for Armenia's participation in the BRICS summit and advocated for Armenia to apply for membership in the organization. He highlighted that many of Armenia’s largest trading partners—Russia, India, the United Arab Emirates, China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran—are either members of BRICS or have applied for membership.