News.am, Armenia
Dec 28 2020
00:34, 28.12.2020
There was a need to try to have more or less tolerable positions in the negotiation process. The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, stated this in an interview with Public TV, speaking on the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) peace process.
"Because we inherited the negotiation process in a position that the seven regions [around Artsakh] should have been returned [to Azerbaijan], and Armenia has officially, publicly accepted it, and the issue of Karabakh's status has been brought, put to a point where it can have an independent status if Azerbaijan agrees to it—which, of course, will never happen.
Yes, we could have prevented the war with almost these same results, including Shushi [town of Artsakh]. I do not understand this debate at all. There are things that should not need to have been ‘opened,’ but if the thing has come here, I will ‘open’ [it]. One of the key points in the whole negotiation process was the return of refugees to Nagorno-Karabakh—unquestionable, indisputable, undeniable! This meant that the fate of Nakhchivan was predetermined for Nagorno-Karabakh. Well, how long are we going to pretend? Well, if we agreed that the refugees would return to Shushi, and with 95 percent and more of the Azerbaijani population. There is a point [in the peace talks] for the return of refugees, and we have a problem to return our compatriots to Hadrut [town]. Should we [Armenians] have tried to resist and withstand in order to better protect our interests? Should we have tried or not? In my opinion, yes, definitely. Did we have the opportunity to defend those interests? Yes because the [Armenian] opposition also says that there was an opportunity to win that war. Why didn't we win that war? Well, it's not about not winning, but to end it on an at least favorable terms for us," Pashinyan added.
