11:39,
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan reiterated that he personally bears entire responsibility for the latest developments in Artsakh, but at the same time he highlighted the need to explain all circumstances to the society.
“There is no doubt that I am the number one official who bears responsibility for what happened. I realize that due to this fact – perhaps this will sound harsh – I will stand before our people’s trial, but in this case the people must be able to make conclusions, they must know all circumstances of the case. Hearing out the very troops, the opposition and the government is an inseparable part of this process. I find it important that the developments that took place should be understandable,” Pashinyan said during an online news conference.
The PM also elaborated on the past negotiations process. He said that as of May 2018, the NK negotiations process had crossed the point of no-return when the issue had entered the “territories in exchange for nothing” logic. Pashinyan reminded that during those days, many Republicans where voicing their predictions, claiming that difficulties and surrender of territories will happen in Artsakh.
“There are three options in this case: Either these people are prophets, or the government and I are conspirators, or they knew back then on what point the negotiations process on Karabakh had stopped and where it had reached. My policy in this context was the following – to try and not agree to this all and to attempt to change the logic. And essentially, we can say that unfortunately we didn’t succeed, because we were facing a situation when there was an international consensus that the territories must be returned to Azerbaijan without preconditions. And we, indeed, we were unable to change this logic, and perhaps we didn’t accurately assess the possibilities for changing them. On the other hand, if we didn’t accurately assess it, then what should we had done? Adapt with that reality? I couldn’t adapt with that and I tried to increase Armenia’s resistibility regarding this issue. I tried to do everything in order to increase the level of capabilities of the Armenian military,” he said.
Pashinyan said the accusations in his address are contradicting one another. He said on one hand there are accusations for signing a document on surrendering territories, and on the other hand there are accusations on why it wasn’t done earlier.
“Our army, our military fought and resisted for as long as it had a concrete strategic and tactical purpose and meaning. On the other hand we are again accused in contradicting things. We are accused for the victims of war, we are accused that we took that step in order to avoid victims and not allow the blockade of 20-35 thousand people. I bear entire responsibility for this all, but to bear it fully I find it necessary for all circumstances to be explained to the public,” Pashinyan said.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan