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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated in Parliament on Thursday that if his political team had not come to power in 2018, a sovereign Republic of Armenia would not exist today.
“Maybe it sounds immodest, but I must say this: this is a mission, and we are fulfilling it. I said in 2021 that if our people decide I should be shot, I will stand silently and quietly by the wall. I say this now again, but now we are confident, I am confident in the path we have chosen. What is a state? We are just learning. They don’t know what a state is; they know what an outpost is. But we have decided that we must become an independent state,” Pashinyan said.
The Prime Minister noted that although there were provisions regarding Nagorno-Karabakh in the government’s 2021 program that could have been followed, doing so would have resulted in the loss of statehood.
“Political leadership means taking responsibility that no one else would take. The negotiation documents will be published and you will see that the topic of Karabakh’s independence is fake. They kept us in their pocket, using Karabakh as bait,” he said.
Pashinyan also addressed claims that they allegedly dislike or distrust people from Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Half of our current Armed Forces leadership are people from Karabakh. Our current armed forces are led by Karabakh natives. So if we do not trust them, do not like them, or have betrayed them, how did we appoint these people? How do they work with us? They know everything from the inside, don’t they? How do they work with us?” the Prime Minister said.