We Have a Major Global Problem That Can Overwhelm All Our Achievements: Pashinyan

We have a major global problem that can overwhelm all our achievements; this refers to the 44-day war of 2020, the numerous casualties, and our tragedy. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made this statement during the 6th congress of the "Civil Contract" party at the sports and concert complex.

After that, Pashinyan asked for a minute of silence to honor the memory of the victims.

"The main question we need to answer is why did it turn out this way? We have a situation where our program has brought success, and a case where sticking to our program has led to failure—the Artsakh issue is exactly about that. We never thought that the Artsakh issue was one to be used for remaining in power or solving internal political problems," said the Prime Minister.

According to him, in terms of domestic politics, efforts have been made to reaffirm the foundations of statehood, and they followed the same approach regarding the Artsakh issue. Pashinyan noted that the biggest problem has been the need to approach the Artsakh issue within the framework of establishing statehood.

He spoke about the signing of the declaration on November 9, 2020, and the conversations surrounding it. "Many of our partners were in my office when I signed that paper. That document was evaluated as capitulation by certain forces, and movements were built around it. Now, those same forces are passionately defending that very November 9 declaration, saying that we cannot lose the achievements present in that document. Today, those who accused us of signing a capitulation on November 9, 2020, are now saying that I am preparing to sign another capitulation in the near future. This is a historical nonsense; history hasn’t seen the same authority signing capitulations two or three times," Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan reiterated that in 2007, the Armenian government, using the Madrid principles as a negotiation basis, destroyed the legal grounds for the declaration of independence of Artsakh. He stated that upon coming to power, the Civil Contract party has done everything in its power to restore the foundations of the Armenian statehood.

"But we have recorded that Armenia consistently refused and undermined the foundations of statehood from 1991 to 2008. The Armenian authorities have sent a line to Azerbaijan, giving them hope that they can achieve everything without war, and in April 2018, the person at the head of the power at that time acknowledged its end," said Pashinyan.

According to him, upon coming to power, the Civil Contract party tried to bring Artsakh back to the negotiating table but found that Armenia no longer decides anything in that context, and the only thing that can be determined is to comply with decisions made elsewhere. And if the ruling party made a mistake, in Pashinyan's opinion, the mistake was that they did not comply with those decisions.