Although Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had previously announced that during his visit to the Syunik Province he would also visit Goris, Kapan and Meghri, he returned to Yerevan after visiting only the city of Sisian and the village of Sarnakunk.
Parallel to the Prime Minister’s visit, a protest was underway in the city of Goris, where those gathered said they would not allow the Prime Minister to enter the Syunik Province. The Prime Minister, interrupting his working visit, noted in a Facebook post that the road to Goris had been blocked so that “it would not become obvious that the atmosphere in those cities is the same as in Sisian.” The Prime Minister wrote that they would not resort to force on a day of mourning. Pashinyan’s opponents had kept the road to Goris blocked since early morning.
“He lied to us, one says whoever was standing somewhere, let them stay standing there, another comes and says this is not your place, go over there, why should we take positions, why should we spend astronomical sums to build defenses for the Turk, so the Turk can come sit on that defense and come draw weapons on us,” said one of them.
Nikol Pashinyan, while heading to the Syunik Province in the morning, stated on a Facebook broadcast that his visit was not intended to inflame passions: “I made the decision to come to the Syunik Province to come and pay my tribute of respect and appreciation to the people of Syunik. Second, and more importantly, to answer your questions, to look you directly in the eyes, to give the necessary explanations. I am aware of what your questions will be like, and I have a certain conviction that I will be able to answer the questions you pose, to dispel your doubts.”
Pashinyan went only to Sisian among the cities he had mentioned, and visited the city pantheon: “Today we brought our homage and offered incense at the graves of Syunik soldiers, and this process will continue. We will not be provoked.”
In Sisian, the Prime Minister declared that Armenia’s current borders were determined by the law on the administrative-territorial division of the Republic of Armenia adopted in 2010, noting that under that law the other side is described as the border of Azerbaijan. “Now people who were members of the government and deputies of the National Assembly in those years tell us: why are you standing at those points, do you, what, recognize that border? But didn’t that acquire the force of law? And why didn’t they say then that this is the territory of the Republic of Artsakh, why didn’t they say it? I want you and all the people of Syunik to have a clear picture of what is happening,” noted Pashinyan.
