Should Pashinyan Have Said at the UN Podium That Shushi and Hadrut Are Occupied? - Gagik Melikyan

We need to strengthen the army, but we shouldn’t openly declare what we have achieved or what we have done. This was stated today by Gagik Melikyan, a deputy from the ruling Civil Contract party, during a briefing with journalists at Yerablur.

“We should leave the army to operate in secrecy; we must be able to wait until the final outcome,” said Melikyan.

In response to a journalist's question about whether we should accept the current situation or strive to regain what was lost, Melikyan stated, “I agree that we should recover what we lost. Not by shouting from the rooftops that we want to get it back, but quietly, just as they did after they lost in 1994 and took it back over 25 years. Of course, we've lost our territories; we must regain them, and for that, we need patience and unity.”

When asked if we tell the world that the enemy has occupied those territories, the deputy replied, “Of course, we do.”

To the remark that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not say from the UN podium that at least Hadrut and Shushi are occupied, he responded, “So you think he should have said that? Such things should not be said; you should quietly do your work. We didn’t go out today and take Shushi back. We need to be able to arm ourselves, create a professional army, and then address future issues regarding what we can do.”