“A conversation with a citizen: my greatest sin” — this is how RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan titled his latest live broadcast, in which he addressed the signed document.
“The greatest sin attributed to me is that well-known document. It is said that I agreed to hand over three territories — Aghdam, Lachin, Kelbajar — to Azerbaijan. In reality, it may not seem surprising, but that episode is not about handing over but about keeping, because that document was signed in a situation when Shushi had fallen, when the RA Armed Forces General Staff was reporting to me that the means were in a rather problematic state, to put it mildly. The political leadership of Artsakh also shared that opinion,” said Pashinyan.
The RA Prime Minister addressed the question of what would have happened had that document not been signed.
“In reality, that document gave away what, according to military and non-military assessments, we could not have held in that situation. In a situation when Stepanakert was left unprotected, if military operations had continued, there was a very high probability that Stepanakert, Martuni, and Askeran would have been captured, after which our second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth defensive lines would have found themselves encircled, and our thousands of soldiers would have been encircled, and as a consequence a complete collapse would have occurred. Essentially, this decision was made on the basis of this assessment. It is no coincidence that there are already dozens of cases where soldiers on the front line send video messages, post on their social media pages that they support the decision taken. What is this? This is because they have seen and understood the situation on the ground, however bitter that situation may be,” added Pashinyan, also noting that Stepanakert was under direct threat; the assessment of the Chief of the General Staff and the President of Artsakh was that Stepanakert was symbolically defended. If the fall of Stepanakert had suddenly occurred, it would have left those thousands of soldiers encircled. As a consequence, we would also have lost what remained under that document.
