Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's Address to Nation

"After I took responsibility for our failures in the Artsakh war, an interesting process began in the RA: everyone who is not lazy rushes to blame me and the current government for all our mistakes over the past 25-30 years." Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this in his address.

“It got to the point that the person who excluded Nagorno-Karabakh from the negotiation process and transferred the negotiations to the Armenia-Azerbaijan plane accuses us that Karabakh received the context of a territorial dispute because of our policy. This issue received a territorial context when Armenia began negotiations instead of Karabakh, and this fact happened more than 20 years ago. We are accused of the fact that the international community perceived the aggression committed by Azerbaijan this year as the restoration of territorial integrity, and this accusation is voiced by the person, during whose leadership he explained to the Armenian public that “there is nothing dangerous in the fact that the international community in documents accuses Armenia of occupying the territories of Azerbaijan, because when you enter the toilet of the plane and close the door, it says occupied. So there is nothing terrible in the word "occupied". "

“I suppose that now many people are wondering what I'm talking about now. I am talking about things that were known to every citizen of Armenia in the 2000s, because at the highest level explanations were given about Armenia's diplomatic failures, or declaring that these were not failures. But time probably erases memory, or at least makes things less visible, and some decided to take advantage of this. I want to say that this attitude of the international community was formed not in 2020, but over the past 25 years, when the Karabakh issue was perceived as a territorial dispute, and this became our greatest problem, and Armenia gradually began to be perceived by the international community as occupant. This has not happened in the last 2 years; in the last 2 years there has been an attempt to get out of this vicious circle.

We are accused that the war was a failure of Armenian diplomacy. Nobody asks when and what diplomatic successes Armenia has had on the Karabakh issue since the start of the institutional negotiations. Was the OSCE Lisbon Assembly a diplomatic success in 1995, when immediately after our victory in the Artsakh war, the international community, in fact, demonstrated its approach, according to which Karabakh should be autonomous within Azerbaijan, and this is the formula for resolving this issue? Was the package of "common state" on the negotiating table in 1998 a diplomatic success, in which the demand for surrender of 7 regions to Azerbaijan was clearly stated, and it was put forward to Armenia, and that Azerbaijan and Karabakh should be part of one state? Was the 1999 OSCE Istanbul memorandum a diplomatic success, which stated that conflicts should be resolved on the basis of territorial integrity?

Were the Madrid principles a diplomatic success, which, by the way, were trumpeted as a diplomatic success, but it turned out something shameful that Karabakh may not be a part of Azerbaijan only if Azerbaijan agrees?

Were the Kazan talks a diplomatic success in 2011, when Azerbaijan slammed the door, and the Armenian leader gave interviews here and there, and said that we are ready to return 7 regions to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan wants more?

Were the documents adopted in various international institutions over the past 25 years, which clearly stated that the territories of Azerbaijan were occupied, and this issue should be resolved within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, were diplomatic success? Was it a diplomatic success that in 2013 Azerbaijan began a stage of military escalation, and, in fact, no one condemned it for this? Why? Because when you enter the toilet on the plane and close the door, it says "occupied". Many will not believe, but this is almost a literal quote from the statement of the Armenian negotiator in the 2000s.

And those who carried out diplomacy at this level today say about us that we have failed diplomacy. Were the Russian proposals of 2016 a diplomatic success, when, in fact, the issue of Artsakh's status was excluded from the agenda?

But okay, we have built a bad relationship with Russia, as you claim, and you built a good one. If you built your relations in this way, how did it happen that on the proposal presented by our strategic ally, the issue of Artsakh's status was excluded from the agenda? You were good diplomats. How did it happen that in connection with the April 2016 war Azerbaijan was not punished? Because you went and obediently agreed to what was proposed, that is, you recognized the right of Azerbaijan to wage war and made this right legitimate,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

“And globally, in the end, we must find the strength to admit that the reason for our failure was that Armenia was a corrupt state for at least 25 years, in which the most influential part of the elite, which is politically active today, at one time she did nothing except accumulate personal wealth, and ate, squander, destroy, transfer all the resources of the state to Swiss banks. All this was done not by 1-2 people; it was done by a whole system with many tentacles. It resisted and resists every day. And this resistance came to a head. Their main goal is not to reveal the truth about this war and the events that preceded and followed it, so that everything remains at the level of manipulation.

By the way, there is a version that the purpose of the attack on November 9^th was the physical destruction of the government, precisely under these emotions. Why? So that a lot about this war would not be revealed, but they cannot but be revealed. In any case, the history of our past path and failures needs to be analyzed in detail. This should happen without any manipulation. This will surely happen, but for a real analysis you need calmness, and today we are all in disarray,” he said.

“We have failed not diplomacy, but attempts to get rid of the diplomatic burden of the last 25-30 years. We have failed attempts to overcome the consequences of your failures. This is the truth.

Some people think that Azerbaijan should have easily accepted 5 + 2. This was a preliminary proposal, all this still had to be written, discussed and signed. According to the already known method, at the moment when Armenia would agree to some option, Azerbaijan would want more - Lachin, Shushi, etc. I am simply amazed by some people who, considering themselves great diplomats, do not understand or do not want to understand these simple things.

We are accused of Turkey's involvement in the Karabakh issue. Sorry, but Turkey became involved in the Karabakh issue as a result of football diplomacy, when, as a result of the failure of Armenian diplomacy, it announced that it would not establish relations with Armenia as long as the territories of Azerbaijan are occupied. And thus it entered this question, and that was 10 years ago.

The next group of absurd accusations concerns the alleged destruction of the army that we came and destroyed in 2 years. We are accused: why was the air not closed? The air was “closed”, ladies and gentlemen, because in 2017, devices for 42 million dollars were purchased for the Armenian army, which were supposed to keep the air closed, but later it turned out that they simply did not work,” he said.

“Now we are asked why we didn't buy something for the army, or why we didn't buy something else for it. For 2.5 years that we managed, we bought it. For 2.5 years, it was necessary to raise the salaries of military personnel, solve the problem with food and shoes for soldiers, buy cartridges that were not there, purchase machine guns that were abnormal, air defense equipment, and, yes, buy planes.

For 2 years, we had to purchase what we needed to buy over the last 20 years, but what was not bought. Okay, we haven’t bought everything in 2 years that hadn’t been bought in 25 years, but why didn’t you buy it all in the previous 18-20 years? Why did you consider the construction of castles, the purchase of islands and mansions in Europe and the accumulation of millions in Swiss banks more important than the purchase in 20 years of what we have not acquired in 2.5 years?” said the Prime Minister.

“Because you thought everything would be okay when the 'Occupied' sign appeared when the door was closed? Now some thesis has been put into circulation that on the third day of the war I made a decision that had disastrous consequences. We have been looking for this solution for 15 days and cannot find it, because it simply does not exist. These are probably the times now, and any lie can be told and conveyed. And now the direct responsibility for failure in battles is laid on me. Was the Prime Minister in charge of the battles, or was he making decisions at the level of a platoon or regiment commander? Has the head of the Cabinet made decisions solely? The Prime Minister once made a personal decision during the war, and thanks to this decision, the 7^th defensive area is in place because some people were in a panic and wanted to surrender it.

This was not a completely hopeless and insane war. But why didn't we succeed? What connection do these failures have with the testimonies, and this, by the way, is the testimony of the soldiers who came from the front line, that from the first days of the war, some people on the frontline spread rumors that the lands were allegedly sold, Nikol sold them, and the war was simply pointless. What does it have to do with the defeat that some political circles in Armenia had promised domestic political surprises months earlier? With whom did they negotiate the war and domestic political surprises? These were public statements,” Nikol Pashinyan said.

“I would also like to touch upon one issue, that there is another group of servicemen who have gone missing, which I would not like to talk about now. Concrete work is also being carried out on this part, but I cannot say anything about this yet.

We have not yet managed to announce the days of mourning and events. We consider it correct to do this after identifying at least most of the unidentified bodies. It must be a period of admiration and reflection, and we must go through this together and with each other. It should be a reflection on the past and the future, more forward-looking.

I would like to touch upon one more painful topic. These days, processes are taking place on some sections of the borders of Armenia, which, of course, are painful and are perceived with pain by some of our compatriots. It is, of course, understandable, but we must state that our Armed Forces are deployed along the entire border of the Republic of Armenia. In this case, we are talking about a segment of Armenia, and the case with Artsakh is a separate issue.

Of course, these processes taking place at our border cause serious problems in the perception of people. There are different types of practical problems, but they are not insurmountable. We are working on them, but, I repeat, our Armed Forces are deployed along the border of the Republic of Armenia, and I ask you not to panic about this. Our further actions should be aimed at making it a border, not a front line, and we must follow this path,” he said.