Nikol Pashinyan Responds to Journalist's Question About Shushi in Facebook Live

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan once again addressed Shushi and his statements about it during a Facebook live session.

Pashinyan recalled that during the war, there were discussions about various options for stopping the conflict, and that the Azerbaijani side had also set conditions regarding the return of Azerbaijani refugees to the city of Shushi. “Essentially, the conversation was about restoring the demographic status quo of 1992. When we had already agreed that the war needed to stop, a new condition emerged. This new condition was the return of Azerbaijani refugees to Shushi, in line with the status quo that existed before the liberation of Shushi in 1992. According to the 1992 agreement, what was directly proposed was that 96 percent of the population in Shushi should be Azerbaijani,” he said.

Pashinyan stated that when this information became clear, many accused him of missing an opportunity that Shushi could maintain its Armenian status, but he did not utilize that possibility. He mentioned that he merely responded to this reality from the parliamentary podium: “Who are those people and how do they believe that if Shushi has 96 percent Azerbaijani population, that city can still be considered under Armenian control, as the deputy asks?”

Nikol Pashinyan cited a question from Naira Zohrabyan, where the deputy wanted to know why he did not agree to the Russian president's proposal, which offered much more favorable conditions to stop the war while keeping Shushi under Armenian control. “I answer that the condition for stopping the war was that there should be 90 percent or more Azerbaijani population, and under that status, is Shushi still Armenian—this was about its current status, not its origins. We have not discussed historical questions here, such as who founded Shushi, who lived there in the early 20th century, but we discussed a very specific situation, where a prerequisite for stopping the war was set—the return of refugees to Shushi, which in my opinion could not be considered under any circumstances that Shushi has 96 percent Azerbaijani population without clarifying the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, and we can say that it is under Armenian control,” he concluded.