12:50,

YEREVAN, APRIL 14, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is denying the claims that he ordered the military to re-take the Varazatumb, aka Lalatapa height during the 2020 war which had been captured by Azeri forces during the 2016 April war.

“They say I had made a decision, that I said ‘go and capture it’, Serzh Sargsyan surrendered it, and in this context we took 700 casualties. This is complete nonsense,” Pashinyan said in parliament when asked on the accusations by MP Taguhi Tovmasyan.

“The recommendation of this operation was made by a general, the operation was found acceptable by a general, the assessment of the possibility for carrying it out was made by a general and the decision was made by the kind of generals who at that moment had the possibility for making that decision. I moderated the conversation and didn’t even express my own opinion. I asked the senior-most [official], he said it is a good idea after which the situation was assessed and he briefed me that indeed it can and should be done.”

Pashinyan noted that all episodes of the war must be investigated.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan