The War was fought for Shushi: Pashinyan assures that the issue has  been on negotiating table since 1996

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.