There Was an Order to Physically Eliminate Me: Pashinyan

Today, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was at "Loft," where he participated in a discussion about his book "The Other Side of the Country."

During the discussion, Pashinyan explained how the book came to be. "When I found myself in hiding and had constant communication with the outside world, our Hakob Simidian would come and go every day, telling me what was happening and what people were saying. At that time, he mentioned that people were talking about whether I was hiding in this embassy or that one, and some even claimed to have seen me in Dubai, and so on. During that time, publications appeared in the media saying that the National Security Service had been instructed not to arrest me if they found me, but to create the illusion of armed resistance and physically eliminate me. This was a scenario that I was facing, and the first thing I thought was: if that happens, if they physically eliminate me, what will people think afterward? They will ask, ‘Who was this person? What did he want? Why did he come? What did he do?’ I understood that if the law enforcement agencies were convinced that I was in Yerevan, they would definitely find me, because that conviction would compel them to enter my line of thought. From there, the idea emerged to write a series of articles that would divert them from the right path of searching for me. This was my two motivations," he said.

According to Pashinyan, the entire essence of the book is to go from the statue of Myasnikyan to the square in such a way that you do not return, always moving forward, ensuring that there is no process of retreat. Secondly, when you leave, it is a flight, a status of being wanted, and suddenly, it should not happen that you fled from your homeland; rather, you fled from yourself.