Frankly speaking, I am not satisfied with the situation we have either: Pashinyan

The Prime Minister of Armenia assessed the internal political situation of the country in an interview with TASS following the signing of a joint statement by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia.

Your signed trilateral statement led to massive protests and even calls for your resignation in Armenia. It was reported that you even temporarily left the country. Is that true? How do you assess the current internal political situation in the republic, and does it threaten to disrupt the agreements reached?

You know that we have internal political tension, but the truth is that the calls made by the opposition have not received a wide response from the Armenian society. And I think that the question of power, which is formed by the people, can only be decided through the expression of the people's will. The fact is that the calls made by the opposition do not receive support from the Armenian society. This needs to be noted.

As for the expression of the people's will, the most democratic form is elections. There are also calls for snap parliamentary elections. How do you feel about this, and how do you assess that possibility?

Now, the primary goal of the Government of Armenia and all political forces should be to restore the full stability and security of the Republic of Armenia. I mean not only internal but also external security. I have presented a six-month roadmap, and over the next six months, we need to work towards stabilizing the situation. I mean the political situation, the security situation, and the economic stability. After that, we will consult with our society, the people, and political forces and make a decision regarding further events and actions regarding what we should do next.

As I mentioned, a significant portion of society does not support protest sentiments... This does not mean that everyone is satisfied with the situation regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, etc. Frankly speaking, I am not that satisfied either; we are all dissatisfied with the situation we have. But we must understand what alternatives we have. We must work not to escalate the situation but to stabilize and improve it. And, as I mentioned, I mean not only internal but also external stability and security, as well as economic security and stability, and we need to focus on these issues. This does not mean that the government thinks everything is wonderful and everything is fine. On the contrary, we believe that first, we must not exacerbate the situation, making it worse.

Now we face many questions regarding the return of the citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh to their homes. It is essential to provide certain social guarantees for the citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh and those who have lost their homes. We must stabilize the socio-economic situation in Armenia. Unfortunately, like around the world, the coronavirus pandemic continues in Armenia. That is, our common goal should be to stabilize the situation, and after that, we need to decide how to proceed.

Those protest sentiments that we mentioned together, do they pose a threat to disrupt the agreements reached on November 10? I don't think so, since the Armenian society agrees that at the time the document was signed, there was no real alternative that would be better for us. In other words, in my opinion, there is recognition in the Armenian society of the signed document as it was perceived at that time.

Another question that we still need to analyze, understand, and answer is why everything happened and why we ended up in such a situation. But the fact that there simply was no alternative by November 9, I believe, is an understanding that exists in the Armenian society.