YEREVAN. – While presenting the report on the implementation and results of the government program for 2020 at the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia (RA), Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan quoted from then President Serzh Sargsyan's interview with Russia Today, in November 2016, where he spoke about the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict.

Pashinyan quoted from that interview, saying: "We were close to signing the document several times, where all these principles were clearly reflected; that is, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are leaving the territories that are currently occupied as a security zone. The territories that the Azerbaijanis call ‘occupied,’ they call them the ‘seven forcibly seized Azerbaijani regions.’ We leave the territories, go.

But in the first point it was clearly written that the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be determined through the free expression of the will of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. Then it was written who will participate, what is the agenda and everything.’ The journalist asks: ‘That is, a referendum?’ Serzh Sargsyan answers: ‘Yes, a referendum. That was the embodiment of the right to self-determination, but every time the Azerbaijani side was putting forward new demands;’ that is, we have reached a point where we say, 'Azerbaijan, I return the seven regions to you,' [but] Azerbaijan says, 'No, you have to give more,'" Pashinyan said.

Also, the Armenian PM recalled Serzh Sargsyan's interview given to a local television on July 16, 2017, quoting: "The April war showed that Azerbaijan rejects the Madrid version of the solution of the problem, and this became clear to everyone. Azerbaijan's position is also clear: it says that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is Azerbaijan's internal affair; that is, Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan and should remain so."