We Were Told: What Do You Need an Army For? We Are Standing Behind You, What Problems Do You Have? - Pashinyan

The process of dissolving the Republic of Artsakh became inevitable following substantive changes in the negotiation process in August 2016. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this during a meeting of the initiating group of the ruling Civil Contract party in Ijevan.

"In the negotiating situation we inherited, the inevitable path forward was not only the surrender of territories, but also the dissolution and nullification of the established order in Artsakh. I first spoke about this very carefully during my speech in the investigative committee, and subsequently more openly during a recent Q&A session with citizens. I can speak more freely about it now, unfortunately, after the events that took place in Nagorno-Karabakh," Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan noted that this topic has not been addressed because if it were discussed, the people would have to be informed that for 30 years resources have been wasted on a problem that was initially unsolvable. "Why was it unsolvable from the beginning? For several reasons, including the resolutions of the UN Security Council. We are being blamed now, saying that you initially claimed you would pursue the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh's self-determination, but you did not pursue it. The problem is that we tried to understand what the right to self-determination means, and at the Lisbon summit on December 6, 1996, we were told that the highest expression of the right to self-determination could be an autonomous status within Azerbaijan. Essentially, we followed this logic and our greatest fault is that we began to discuss these topics with our people only after the 44-day war. On the other hand, we have faced the psychological and emotional impossibility of having that conversation, and I personally could not talk about it, for which I take responsibility," he added.

Pashinyan stated that certain forces have exploited the issue of Artsakh to prevent the construction of a state in Armenia, directing everything towards addressing the impossible issue of Artsakh. "In other words, we have spent all our resources, which should have gone into building our state, into solving the unsolvable problem of creating a state in Artsakh," the Prime Minister stated.

Pashinyan declared that we need to understand what has happened to us in order to comprehend what is happening now and to plan for what will happen tomorrow. "For years, we were told not to build roads, schools, hospitals, and even asked, what do you need an army for? We are standing behind you, what problems do you have? As a result, we have spent our resources on an unsolvable problem," he emphasized.

According to Pashinyan, today’s mission is the independence of Armenia, sovereignty, the consolidation of statehood, or the reaffirmation of the Republic of Armenia as a sovereign, independent, democratic, and free legal state.