RA Prime Minister: In this situation, the international community  must take a decisive step - to recognize the independence of  Nagorno-Karabakh

ArmInfo.The most important thing is that the international community and the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs record what happened and what is happening. Armenian Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this in an interview with Euronews,  speaking about the situation in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict.

In his words, the Armenian side welcomed the statement of the  presidents and foreign ministers - the co- chairs of the OSCE Minsk  Group. Azerbaijan, at the instigation of Turkey, announced its  intention not to stop hostilities. Thus, Azerbaijan remained within  the framework of the instructions given by Turkey. "The statement of  the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy  confirms this," the head of the Armenian government said. He recalled  the presence in the combat zone of terrorist groups fighting on the  side of Azerbaijan, which were recruited and moved to the conflict  zone by Turkey. "Taking into account the fact that the Armenians of  Nagorno-Karabakh are now under threat of existence, because its  settlements are constantly subjected to rocket fire, I think that in  this situation the international community should take decisive steps  to recognize the independence of the NKR," Nikol Pashinyan said.

Answering the question about the striving of Armenia and Karabakh for  peace, the Prime Minister stressed that the strikes of the Nagorno  Karabakh Defense Army were retaliatory. The Nagorno-Karabakh  government made it clear that it retaliated only because it was the  only way to try to stop the rockets fired by Azerbaijan at populated  areas.

The head of the Armenian government stated that peace has always been  the main goal of the Armenian side. "From the day I was elected Prime  Minister, I said that we must try to find a solution acceptable to  the people of Armenia, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, the people of  Azerbaijan. And I the first leader involved in the negotiation  process, who officially stated that any solution should be acceptable  to everyone.The problem is that Azerbaijan did not accept this  formula, stating that there is only one goal for it: to completely  rid Nagorno-Karabakh of Armenians by ethnic cleansing and the seizure  of Nagorno- Karabakh under its full control.This is the threat of  genocide, international terrorists who are fighting on the side of  Azerbaijan, recruited and brought to the region by Turkey, are  involved in the implementation of the threat of genocide today.This  fact, in fact, has already been recognized by a number of European  countries in the region I would like to emphasize once again that if  we want to stop a humanitarian catastrophe, if we want to stop To  develop this conflict on a wider scale, the international community  should be disposed to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh,  "Nikol Pashinyan said.

He noted that Armenia and Karabakh could not start this war for a  simple reason, because they did not have problems to solve.  "Azerbaijan, over the past 15 years, 15 months, 15 weeks, 15 days, 15  hours before the war, constantly threatened solve the problem by  military means. And there are no secrets in this. Let's publicly  analyze the statements of Azerbaijan and Turkey, let's publicly  analyze why the terrorists were brought to Azerbaijan, to the line of  contact. For what other purpose can terrorists be recruited or  transported to another country if they are not planning military  aggression? But we say that the most important thing today is the end  of violence, for which Azerbaijan must stop its attacks. Of course,  peace in the region is important, and we consider the recognition of  the independence of Karabakh by the international community the best  tool for this, "the head of the Armenian government noted.  He added  that the Armenian side is ready to put out the fire. "We did not  attack anyone. Our actions in Karabakh are absolute self-defense. We  were not going to kill anyone. Our goal is to protect the Armenian  people from a new genocide, to defend ourselves," the RA Prime  Minister noted, stressing that the Karabakh issue violence is  impossible. Azerbaijan's policy is to resolve the Karabakh issue by  force.  "Armenia has always been ready to compromise. It is  Azerbaijan that does not want compromises. Its only goal is the  deportation of the Armenians of Karabakh, who always made up 80% of  the population, the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh from the Armenians  by ethnic cleansing. But people cannot leave their thousand-year-old  homeland simply at the request of Azerbaijan. And they must defend  themselves, they have the right to defend themselves. Apart from  self-defense, Nagorno-Karabakh has no other goal here, "the head of  the Armenian government concluded.