One of the recent scandalous headlines is that I allegedly stated that Shushi is not an Armenian city. Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this Saturday during a live broadcast on Facebook, entitled "About Shushi," also directly quoting his statement during the recent parliament-government question and answer session that, "There has never been such an option of discussion, not only now, but during the whole negotiation process, that the refugees from Azerbaijan do not return to Shushi, and Shushi had 90 and more percent of Azerbaijani population before the [Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh)] conflict and the liberation; that is, do you mean to say that the city of Shushi, with a population of 90 and more Azerbaijanis, is Armenian in its status?”
According to the PM, using this _expression_, some say that he claimed that Shushi is not an Armenian city. Pashinyan noted that he had referred to that topic while answering the question of one of the MPs that the Russian president had proposed to stop the recent Artsakh war in much more favorable conditions for the Armenian side, and Shushi would remain under Armenian control.
"During the war, there was talk of options for stopping the war, and the Azerbaijani side posited a condition for the return of Azerbaijani refugees to the city of Shushi. In fact, it was about the possibility of restoring the demographic status quo in [19]92. When we had already agreed that we should stop the war, a new condition arose that the Azerbaijani refugees shall return to the city of Shushi in accordance with the status quo that existed in 1992," Pashinyan said.
He added that when the above-mentioned fact became clear, many people publicly accused him that there was an option for Shushi to remain Armenian in status, but he did not make use of that opportunity.
"I have responded to the reality of who and how they think that when there will be a 96 percent Azerbaijani population in Shushi, the city with that status will be considered under Armenian control, as the MP says," Pashinyan emphasized.
According to the Armenian PM, the condition for stopping the war in the context of Shushi is to have 90 and more percent of Azerbaijani population.
"It is about its current status, not about the origin; that is, we have not discussed a historical issue. We discussed a specific situation when the return of Azerbaijani refugees to Shushi in accordance with the demographic status quo existing in 1992 was proposed as a condition for stopping the war. In no way could it be considered that there is a 96 percent Azerbaijani population in Shushi without clarifying the status of Nagorno-Karabakh and we can say that it is under Armenian control," said Nikol Pashinyan.
According to him, this matter only shows an example of media manipulation.