Why Didn't You Wear a Mask During a Notable Gathering When COVID-19 Was at Its Peak in Armenia? HARDtalk Host Asks Pashinyan

The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, addressed several issues during an interview with BBC’s HARDtalk, discussing the fight against corruption, accusing Azerbaijan of escalating tensions at the border, and explaining why he did not wear a mask at a notable gathering when he was urging Armenian citizens to comply with mandatory mask-wearing.

The interview between Pashinyan and HARDtalk host Stephen Sackur was conducted via video link.

Pashinyan disagreed with the notion that the government's efforts to combat COVID-19 had been ineffective, stating, "It’s too early to make evaluations, particularly in comparison to Georgia, where fewer COVID-19 cases have been reported."

When asked why he did not wear a mask during the notable gathering at the time when Armenia was experiencing a peak in COVID-19 cases and the public was mandated to wear masks, Pashinyan responded that they adhered to the laws that were in effect at that moment in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Regarding the July clashes along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the Prime Minister stated that Azerbaijan had escalated the situation and initiated the attacks along the entire border. He called on the international community to listen to both sides in such incidents, noting, "Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a monitoring system along the border of the two countries."

In response to Sackur's question about whether Pashinyan was prepared to apologize for the events in Khojaly in 1992, the Prime Minister stated that the opposition in Azerbaijan is responsible for those events.

Addressing the question of whether Armenia aligns more with Russia or NATO-the European Union, Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that Armenia continues to remain a strategic partner of Moscow while also cooperating with both NATO and the European Union.