Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is horrified by Wednesday’s parliamentary debate on the recent incident in Shaki village. He stated this at Thursday’s press briefing.

During the question-and-answer session with the government on Wednesday in the National Assembly (NA), the prime minister was asked numerous questions about the incident in Shaki, where an Azerbaijani soldier who had crossed over to the Armenian side under unknown circumstances had broken into a e house, taken children hostage, and then had shot and wounded their mother with a machine gun. The soldier is now in custody and an investigation is underway.

Both yesterday and today, the premier accused the Armenian opposition of inadequately perceiving the incident.

At the same time, Pashinyan made quite noteworthy claims about Azerbaijan’s position on the peace process with Armenia. According to him, the difference between negative statements coming from Armenia and Azerbaijan is that the opposition is making them in Armenia, whereas the representatives of the authorities are making them in Azerbaijan. From this, Pashinyan draws an unexpected conclusion:

“So, should Armenia’s authorities also make such statements? If someone makes statements that harm peace, should we do that, too? Peace is an achievement, and we must take care of it. We do not intend to belittle the Shaki incident, but we must not lose our properness. I am horrified by yesterday’s discussion in the NA,” Pashinyan noted.

He repeated the view voiced in the parliament about what consequences the crossing of the border by an Armenian soldier would have, according to the logic of the Armenian opposition’s assessments, and also spoke about the people’s incomplete understanding of the real complexity of the border relief. According to him, if we take the “saboteur” theory as a basis, it turns out that Azerbaijan “opened the doors and gave way” to him.

Otherwise, the question arises not only how he crossed Armenia’s defense line, but also how he crossed the defense line of Azerbaijan. If so, then the Armenian opposition cannot blame the authorities, since the same situation is with them, the Armenian prime minister made another unexpected conclusion, clearly placing the responsibility for the Armenian “porous” border on the adversary’s lack of vigilance.

Pashinyan reminded of the fragility of peace, assured that no one intends to underestimate what happened, and went so far as to compare the incident with domestic crimes.

“If someone is afraid, then they can be afraid in Yerevan, too,” the Armenian prime minister said, mentioning the cases of bandit attacks and murders in Armenia.

“This is an ordinary cross-border criminal offense. There are other incidents, too. For example, the import and transit of drugs. One should not make the end of the world out of what happened,” Pashinyan continued.

He once again emphasized that the Armenian authorities will not make statements that put peace at risk.

“If others do it consciously... once is a coincidence. But if it happens 3-4 times, it means that peace is being targeted. If we also respond in the same way, we will put peace at risk and achieve their goal, giving in to provocation—we will carry out their task. Our goal is to institutionalize peace, which is many times more difficult than destroying peace,” the Armenian premier said, alluding to the rhetoric of the Azerbaijani authorities.

The prime minister was reminded that he is much harsher when it comes to Armenian political opponents. In response, Pashinyan repeated that he had given his assessment of what had happened and noted that the Azerbaijani soldier had committed a crime.

“He is detained, charged under a number of articles. There is no extradition issue, there is no such demand from Azerbaijan either. Azerbaijan itself has initiated a criminal case,” he noted.

And to clarify everything once and for all, the Armenian premier stated that the aforesaid Azerbaijani soldier is a criminal.

“[Armenian ex-President] Robert Kocharyan is also a criminal, [opposition Prosperous Armenia Party leader and businessman] Gagik Tsarukyan is also a criminal, [opposition Strong Armenia party leader and businessman] Samvel Karapetyan is also a criminal, [Armenian former official] Gagik Khachatryan is also a criminal. Are there any other questions? This is a political assessment,” added Nikol Pashinyan.