On March 7, Serzh Sargsyan, the third President of Armenia, stated that only the change of the chief negotiator could change the situation in [the separatist] Karabakh and Armenia.

According to him, neither mediators nor Azerbaijan takes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan seriously today: "I have said it, and I repeat it again. It is necessary to change the interlocutor." Serzh Sargsyan stated that he has no ambition to return to power and will never be Armenia's negotiator. But he said he was sure that after the change of leader, the negotiation process should go in a different direction: "Yes, no matter who replaces him, the situation will be very complicated, but in my opinion, it is possible."

Serzh Sargsyan then said: "Actually, we did not negotiate with Azerbaijanis, we negotiated with mediators. Because we have nothing to agree with the Azerbaijanis, because they want everything to be theirs, they want even more."

Speaking about Armenian-Russian relations, the former president insisted he was not pro-Russian. However, he said he believes Armenia has no better ally or alternative than Russia: "Will NATO come and build my base here? Will any European country have a contingent in Karabakh? You know very well that I have never been anti-European in general. My current appeal is not to NATO or the European Union but to the adventurers trying to make a mess here for reasons unknown to me." Answering the question about the possibility of an international guaranteed dialogue between Khankendi/Stepanakert and Baku and the creation of international guarantees for Karabakh, Sargsyan said that he is sure that there are countries that can control Baku: "There are several international forces, even individual countries, that can control Azerbaijan if they want to."