ArmInfo. The war was fought for Shushi, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the National Assembly on April 14. According to him, the country's authorities opened the way to "bring the people out of the status of the sacrificial lamb."
Pashinyan referred to his yesterday's speech in parliament. "Yesterday in this hall, I presented the chain of events of 1998-2018. And it is no coincidence that Serzh Sargsyan referred to only one episode, saying that he had never negotiated a phased settlement of the Karabakh issue," he said.
He then cited Serzh Sargsyan's statement that he had publicly spoken several times about the difference between a phased and a package option, explaining in detail that the package option cannot be implemented in a day or an hour, but must be resolved in stages. "I would like to draw your attention to the fact that Serzh Sargsyan reacted only to this episode, because by clarifying this episode, the fundamental issue is resolved that the change of power in 1998 was not for the status, saving Karabakh from something, but for seizing power. Precisely therefore, he referred only to this episode, since only the explanation of this episode without details emphasizes that the 20-year history had a completely different context. It is no coincidence that after the 2020 war, Serzh Sargsyan, returning to 2018, stated that he wanted to remain prime minister , after serving twice as president, for the sake of resolving the Karabakh issue, he forgets that from this rostrum he stated that the negotiations had reached an impasse, did not inspire optimism, "Azerbaijan's expectations from the negotiation process are unrealistic, unacceptable for us". Would he accept Azerbaijan's unrealistic demands?" Pashinyan asks.
Pashinyan stressed that the war could have been prevented by fulfilling the unrealistic, unacceptable demands that Serzh Sargsyan spoke about.
According to him, back in 1997 it was planned to divide the issue into two parts, first the Karabakh issue, then the peace agreement. "The same goes for the 2016 package, the same goes for the 2018 package. This package says very clearly that the initial principles are agreed upon, and then negotiations between the governments begin with the participation of representatives of Nagorno-Karabakh. Speaking of NK representatives, they meant NK Armenians, Azerbaijanis of NK. Then the Azerbaijanis of NK would sit at the negotiating table, and there would be no settlement until the issue of Shushi, which has been on the table since 1996, is resolved. Serzh Sargsyan was going to surrender Shushi? If not, then a war would start, and then, in addition to the territories, part of Karabakh would have to be surrendered," he said.
Regarding the statements about the Lachin corridor, he said that none of the negotiating documents mention the width of the Lachin corridor, the issue was subject to discussion at a later date. "Today we are told that we surrendered or want to surrender Karabakh. If we wanted to surrender Karabakh, we would continue the logic of Serzh Sargsyan's negotiations. Thus, we would surrender Karabakh, because even if the referendum took place, the referendum would have to take place within the time frame agreed by the parties. Azerbaijan said very clearly that there will be no referendum in the next 50 years, let the Azerbaijanis return to Karabakh, live together for 50 years, side by side, the Azerbaijani settlements will be settled, and then in 50-100 years it will be clear," Pashinyan said.
The Prime Minister touched upon the criticism that the authorities did not make any attempts to stop the war. "The war was fought for Shushi: Without Shushi, it was impossible to stop or prevent the war. It's simply impossible. I have said this more than once. Our guys who fell, glory to them, they stood for this right. They stood for the opportunity not to surrender Karabakh. And then what I'm talking about is not to surrender Karabakh, because if we go the other way, we will surrender Karabakh, the events around Parukh are an example for you, we will surrender piece by piece. Let's stop deceiving each other," Pashinyan stressed.
Speaking about the significance of his yesterday's speech, he stated that with this speech, the country's authorities opened space for the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh, "because the entire negotiation process of the previous period, Armenia and Artsakh were deprived of political, diplomatic space." "We are paving the way for the preservation of the statehood of Armenia and Artsakh," he assured.
According to the Prime Minister, some threaten that the Karabakh people will leave Karabakh. "It feels like we are dreaming about it. No, Karabakh people should not leave Karabakh. Karabakh people should live in Karabakh, Karabakh people should have rights, freedoms and status in Karabakh. There should be Karabakh people, Artsakh people or Armenians in Karabakh. That's what we're talking about," Pashinyan stressed.
The Prime Minister stressed that servicemen died in the war for this. "We have opened the way to, pardon the expression, to lead our people out of the status of a sacrificial lamb: We did not decide whether there would be a war or not, we did not decide anything. Today I say that Armenia is a sovereign country and we must give back our right to decide something. Because we are a country, and not a stable. We are citizens, not sacrificial lambs, so that in different places they decide how much and how to divide us or to forgive," Pashinyan said. As the prime minister pointed out, he will not allow future generations to remain in this status.
In November 2020, after the signing of the tripartite statement, on the air of the Rossiya-24 TV channel, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted, in particular, that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan initially refused to accept the proposal for a ceasefire on October 19-20, when the armed forces of Azerbaijan took control of a small, southern part of Karabakh. "In general, I managed to convince President Aliyev that it was possible to stop hostilities, but the return of refugees, including to Shushi, was an obligatory condition on his part. But unexpectedly for me, the position of our Armenian partners was formulated in such a way that this is for them unacceptable. Pashinyan told me directly that he sees this as a threat to the interests of Armenia and Karabakh. Now it's not very clear to me what this threat would be, bearing in mind that it was supposed to return civilians while maintaining control from the Armenian side over this part of the territory Karabakh, including Shushi, and bearing in mind the deployment of our peacekeepers, which we already agreed with Armenia and Azerbaijan then," the President of the Russian Federation said. The Russian leader also stressed that the issue of transferring Shushi had never been raised before this war.