VIDEO: We have faced a problem of desertion that has been impossible to solve, says Prime Minister

The Armenian army and the political leadership of Artsakh had clearly identified the need to stop the war as soon as possible. This was stated by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a live broadcast on his Facebook page, addressing the agreement to cease hostilities.

“I have stated in my previous text that I made this decision after the army insisted on the necessity of taking such a step. We have faced certain issues, the prospect of resolving which was not visible, or the resources to resolve them had been exhausted. For example, we encountered situations where a military unit needed to be transferred for combat purposes, but residents of that locality had closed the gates of the military base, preventing vehicles from leaving. We have had dozens of such cases. As a result, there has been a problem of getting equipment to the front line. In many cases, there has been a rough intervention, and in some cases, this was not possible because police were deployed at the front line. This has led to serious and heavy consequences,” Pashinyan noted.

The Prime Minister identified the mobilization system as the next issue. According to him, there is an active army, and citizens are mobilized if necessary. He stated that experience shows that individuals coming from civilian life are unfortunately not well-prepared for full participation in military operations and quickly lose combat readiness. As a result, problems arise.

“This does not mean at all that all those involved have been in the same situation. We have had individuals who fought heroically. Nevertheless, we have also faced a certain issue of desertion that has been impossible to resolve. When the entire mobilized resource is not effective, we have a problem that good fighters often do not have replacements. They also need the opportunity to rest. There have been individuals who remained for a month without being able to find replacements. All of this has created serious problems to the extent that our army and the political leadership of Artsakh have clearly identified the need to stop the war as soon as possible, otherwise the consequences would be even heavier. This has been an extremely difficult and painful decision. It has also caused our indignation, but we found ourselves in a situation where there was no alternative,” the Prime Minister stated.

Regarding why a ceasefire was not agreed upon under the same conditions on September 27, the Prime Minister noted that the conditions for the ceasefire remained the same that day. “This could only be accepted under the condition that you and we give up the 7 districts. We could not take such a step because we believed that the Artsakh army and the Armenian people could do it in a way that we would not be interested in a ceasefire, but we would impose a ceasefire, which unfortunately did not happen. We could not think that handing over territories was the right way to achieve a ceasefire. The question arises, then why did we decide to go for such a step anyway? For one simple reason, listening to the army's reports, it became clear to us that the consequences of continuing would be much heavier. No matter how difficult it is, we must simply stop at this moment,” he added.