On modesty: Pashinyan stated that if his team had not come to power  in 2018, sovereign Armenia would not exist today

ArmInfo. During the negotiations on the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, they wanted us to give up the country's sovereignty and  independence from Armenia. Prime Minister Pashinyan made this statements in his concluding remarks during the parliamentary debates on the 2026 state budget draft  on November 13.

"Why did we not make concessions in 2018? By the end of the year, we  will publish these negotiating documents and close this issue,  because what was wanted from us was Armenia's sovereignty and  independence," Pashinyan stated. According to him, the negotiation  documents will be made public, and the citizens of the Republic of  Armenia will understand that the Karabakh independence issue is a  fake.  "They held us in their hands, using Karabakh as bait," the  Prime Minister noted.

Nevertheless, Pashinyan assured that no one has done as much for  Karabakh as he and his government- from financial support to the NKR,  "which is visible in the budget figures," to everything else, "which  is not visible and will never be visible."

Regarding criticism that the current government dislikes or mistrusts  the people of Karabakh, the Prime Minister stated, "Half of the  current leadership of our Armed Forces are from Karabakh; our current  Armed Forces are led by them. So if we don't trust, don't love,  betray, why we would appoint these people? How do they work with us?  They have inside knowledge, don't they?" "How are they working with  us?" Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia is convinced that if  the political team he led had not come to power in 2018, sovereign  Armenia would not exist today.

"As immodest as it may sound, I must say this; this is a mission, and  we are fulfilling it. I said in 2021 that if our people decide to  sentence me to death, I will stand silently and quietly by the wall.  I say this now, but we are now confident, I am confident in the path  we have chosen. We are just learning what a state truly is.  They  don't know what a state is, they only know what an outpost is, but we  have decided that we must escape the pocket (of other states, where  Pashinyan believes Armenia was by 2018 - ed.) and become an  independent state," Pashinyan said