Nikol Pashinyan's Remarks on Shushi Have Been Manipulated and Distorted: Information Verification Center

The Information Verification Center has addressed the reports circulating in the media on January 20, following the question-and-answer session with the government in the National Assembly, entitled "Nikol Pashinyan stated from the NA podium that Shushi is an Azerbaijani city." Media outlets quoted the Prime Minister, stating, “Shushi is not an Armenian city, as it had over 90 percent Azerbaijani population before it was liberated.” This quote has now appeared in the headlines of Azerbaijani media.

However, Nikol Pashinyan's words have been manipulated and distorted. The Prime Minister, referring to a question posed by a parliamentarian regarding whether Shushi would remain Armenian if the Russian President's proposal of October 18 was accepted, stated: “I want to say the following: there has not been a discussion of any variant where Azerbaijani refugees would not return to Shushi. Moreover, Shushi had over 90 percent Azerbaijani population before the conflict and liberation. So, do you want to say that a city populated by over 90 percent Azerbaijanis is Armenian by that status? Also, you say that I declared that Artsakh is Armenia and that’s it. If you consider that Artsakh is not Armenia, then that is your position, formulate it.”

Thus, the Prime Minister's statement was not about declaring Shushi as an “Azerbaijani city,” but rather about the fact that, as a result of the various options discussed for years and the situation created during the war as of October 18, the demographic picture would revert to that of the Soviet, rather than pre-Soviet, era, and the majority of the population would consist of Azerbaijanis.

The population of Shushi in pre-Soviet and Soviet years: According to the first census of the Russian Empire in 1897, the total population of Shushi was 25,881. Of these, 14,420 were Armenians, and the number of Tatars (modern-day Azerbaijanis) was 10,778. Besides Armenians and Tatars, there were also Russians, Poles, Moldovans, Romanians, Georgians, Germans, Persians, and Jews living in the city.

During the Soviet Union years, according to the first census data of 1926, the population of Shushi had sharply declined to 5,104, of which 4,900 were Azerbaijanis, 93 were Armenians, and 9 were Russians. By 1979, the population of Shushi reached 10,784, with 9,216 Azerbaijanis, 1,409 Armenians, and the remaining being other ethnicities.