PM Pashinyan: Avoiding War Would Have Required Abandoning Armenian Vision for Nagorno-Karabakh

Armen Khachatryan, a member of the investigative commission probing the circumstances of the 44-day war, questioned Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan about the possibility of averting the conflict, regardless of the actions taken.

During the inquiry, Khachatryan asked, "Was it impossible to halt the conveyor leading to war, no matter what measures were taken?"

In response, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated, "I don't believe that we should have abandoned the vision of Nagorno-Karabakh being outside of Azerbaijan. Even if we had relinquished that vision, it wouldn't have guaranteed the avoidance of war. I observed the conveyor belt of war intersecting with negotiation attempts. For instance, the adjustments related to the Lachin Corridor were one such crossroad of the war, which was not fully addressed in Kazan and even less so later. There should have been more discussion on this matter."

He continued, "Another crossroad of the war was the process of involving Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in Nagorno-Karabakh. Then, there was the potential process of delimitation, demarcation, and the peace treaty."

Pashinyan clarified, "I am not suggesting that there was no theoretical possibility of averting war, but it would have required settling the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, which would have meant abandoning the Armenian vision. Doing so could have theoretically created a possibility to avoid such developments."

The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 44-day war continues as officials seek to understand the events leading to the conflict in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).