Not signing the statement on ending the war in Nagorno Karabakh would lead to greater losses and casualties, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said speaking live on Facebook. He said the decision was made on the basis of assessments of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the President of Artsakh.
“The biggest guilt attributed to me is that I agreed to hand over Aghdam, Lachin, Karvachar to Azerbaijan. In fact, although it could seem very surprising, this episode is not about handing over, but keeping lands, because the document was signed in a situation when Shushi had fallen, when, in fact, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia reported that resources were in a rather problematic state,” the Prime Minister said.
According to him, the document helped keep what we would not be able to keep in that situation, according to military and non-military assessment.
“We had a situation, when Stepanakert was left unprotected,” Pashinyan said.
According to the Prime Minister, if the hostilities continued, there was a high probability that the enemy forces would occupy Stepanakert, Martuni, Askeran, the defense districts, with the soldiers there, they would find themselves under blockade. There would be a complete collapse. Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that such a decision was made on the basis of that assessment.
Referring to the fact that a number of soldiers are sending video messages from the front line supporting the decision, the Prime Minister said, it’s not accidental, because “they have seen the situation on the spot, no matter how bitter it was.”
“At that moment we had a situation when Stepanakert was under direct threat. The assessment of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and the President of Artsakh was that, in fact, Stepanakert was only symbolically protected. Thousands of soldiers would be under siege. As a result, we would lose the rest of what is enshrined in this document,” he said.
