Former Armenian Ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan posted two redacted images of a confidential document on his Telegram channel on Tuesday, raising the question why Nikol Pashinyan failed to stop the war in Artsakh earlier.

“There is an extremely important contradiction in the logic of Nikol [Pashinyan]; during the war, he insisted that we were winning, and this was exactly the reason why he continued the hostilities. After the war, he began to shift the blame for the defeat onto anyone else, including a “coward mob”, army generals who were not loyal, officers who fled from the battlefield, ‘miserable’ Shushi,” he wrote.

“Today we must ask ourselves the following question: why did Nikol not stop the hostilities earlier?

“The attached document is a report on the meeting with a top German diplomat. In the report, the German diplomat reveals details of a conversation between Russian President Putin and German Chancellor Merkel. The Russian president was so surprised by Nikol’s refusal to establish a truce on October 10 that he considered it necessary to tell about it.

“After this refusal, the war continued for another 29 days. Similar documents were received by the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office from several other European countries. Both their existence and their content are absolutely confidential.

“So why did Nikol reject the ceasefire plan on October 10?” Minasyan said.