RA Prime Minister: After losing Shushi, in fact, Stepanakert would be under attack, pressure on Martuni would inevitably increase, around 25 thousand soldiers of Armenian Armed[...]

On June 20, with the participation of the RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, an open sitting of the NA Inquiry Committee for Studying the Circumstances of the Hostilities Unleashed on September 27, 2020 was held. The Committee Chair Andranik Kocharyan informed that the opposition Armenia and With Honor factions, according to their statement the previous day, will not take part in the work of the sitting.

Nikol Pashinyan noted that he had been waiting for this meeting for a long time and stated that he had published a significant part of what he had to say on different occasions, but this is the best opportunity to speak comprehensively about the history of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict process, the 44-day war of 2020, about the circumstances regarding the signing of the Trilateral Statement of 9 November 2020, through a speech and Q&A session. "I am ready to share all the information I have and will do this through a speech and Q&A session," the RA Prime Minister said. He considered important the decision to hold this examination in public. According to Nikol Pashinyan, the best public interest implies continuous public communication regarding one of the heaviest pages of our history - the 44-day war and the negotiation process of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, because, according to him, fully understanding what happened to us not only during the 44-day war, but also during the Nagorno Karabakh negotiation process, the public will have a clearer picture of the challenges of the present and the future and the adequacy of the actions of the Government in terms of managing these challenges.

"On 9 November 2020, I signed the Trilateral Statement of the President of Russia, the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia on stopping the second Karabakh war," Nikol Pashinyan said and added that he wanted to answer the question why he signed the document, and the war stopped exactly on November 9. According to him, the process of the fall of Shushi played a crucial role there. According to the Prime Minister, what is important here is not only the symbolic value of Shushi, but also its strategic value. After losing Shushi, in fact, Stepanakert would come under attack, the pressure on Martuni would inevitably increase, around 25 thousand soldiers of the Armenian Armed Forces would be in danger of being under blockade.

It was noted that the statement of November 9, 2020 was the 5^th attempt to stop the war. The first such conversation took place on October 7, when Nikol Pashinyan called the President of Russia Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his birthday. During that conversation, the Russian President highlighted Pashinyan"s statement about his willingness to compromise. Vladimir Putin said he wanted mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible.

"I said that I agree, while inquiring about the terms of the ceasefire. Our understanding was that the fire should cease without preconditions, the parties should remain in their current positions, after which discussions should begin on what compromises the parties are ready for. I said that this option is acceptable for us. On the same day in the evening, I had a second telephone conversation with the President of the Russian Federation, and he said that he spoke with the President of Azerbaijan, but the latter said that he is not ready for the ceasefire, that is, he does not agree to establish a ceasefire," the RA Prime Minister mentioned.

The next day, the President of Russia informed Pashinyan that the Azerbaijani side has a precondition for a ceasefire: they expect Fizuli to be surrendered to them without a battle, and the Armenian Armed Forces to retreat along the Araks to the Khoda Afarin reservoir, so that the reservoir is under the control of Azerbaijan, and they can take water from there for irrigation purposes. In addition, the leadership of Azerbaijan expected to get back Guliyev and Askyarov, who were serving their sentence for murder and kidnapping in Artsakh, considering the option of returning the prisoners of war possible.

The Prime Minister stated that in return for all that, a ceasefire was not announced, but only a humanitarian ceasefire to organize the funeral of the dead, after that there should not be any condition or obligation not to continue military operations. Nikol Pashinyan said that preconditions are not acceptable, as they agreed with the President of Russia that the ceasefire should be approved without preconditions. "And then, even if I agree to the retreat of the troops, there is no guarantee that Azerbaijan will not continue the attack during the retreat. However, I showed flexibility by stating that the joint use of water from the Khoda Afarin reservoir is possible, that is, I think that Nagorno Karabakh may not prevent Azerbaijan from taking water from the reservoir, the condition for the return of Askerov and Guliyev is debatable, if Azerbaijan says how many Armenian prisoners of war it is going to return to the Armenian side through the mediation of the Russian Federation, the condition of handing Fizuli over without a battle and handing over along the Araks coast is not acceptable, the proposal to establish a humanitarian ceasefire in order to bury the bodies of the casualties is fully acceptable." the Prime Minister said.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, in the following days he had several phone conversations with the President of Russia, the main topic of which was how to achieve the establishment and preservation of the ceasefire regime.

"When analyzing the situation in our internal discussions, my conclusion was the following: unless the advance of the Azerbaijani troops is stopped, he will not agree to a ceasefire. This was essentially the balanced scenario for stopping military operations. And I understood that if such a scenario could not be implemented, and the situation in the war scene did not inspire optimism in this regard, then the only possible option would be the compromise option of stopping military operations. Other options did not seem realistic, because days passed after a fairly balanced statement about a ceasefire, but it was not possible to establish a ceasefire," the RA Prime Minister said.

Nikol Pashinyan noted in his speech that it would be possible to avoid the 44-day war if the Karabakh issue was resolved during the previous 25 years. In his opinion, the negotiation process of the Karabakh conflict settlement and its content were directly connected with the internal political situation and events of Armenia, which played the most negative role on the settlement process. There was a big deficit of positive events in the internal political life of Armenia after the victorious ceasefire of 12 May 1994, the Prime Minister added.

Nikol Pashinyan presented and touched upon the conditions for stopping the war unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakh, the entire process of negotiations and many other issues and problems. Summarizing his speech, the Prime Minister mentioned that in the context of the Nagorno Karabakh issue and the regulation of relations with Azerbaijan, the Government is implementing a policy based on the analysis of the entire negotiation process of the Nagorno Karabakh issue and the knowledge gained as a result of it.

The report submitted to the Inquiry Committee will be included in the final package of report of the Committee.

The sitting of the NA Inquiry Committee will continue on June 27, during which Nikol Pashinyan will answer the deputies' questions.