YEREVAN. – We [the incumbent authorities] are blamed for everything that can be blamed on any person or government, including that we are followers of the devil. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia stated this at Friday’s meeting with the ruling Civil Contract Party supporters at Ajapnyak administrative district of Yerevan.

"[But] we are not to blame for the vast majority of these accusations. We all have nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, the ordeal, the [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war we went through [last fall], could not have been avoided. What matters is not the war, but the collapse caused by the war; it was an ‘earthquake’ that destroyed a lot of things. But when there is an earthquake and a building collapses, people say, 'They [the authorities] had ‘eaten’ the cement, they had not installed the fittings well.' The same can be said in this case, too. I do not want to be told now, 'You are blaming the former [authorities] again.' We are not blaming the former, but they are blaming us; so this conversation should take place,” Pashinyan said.

He emphasized that the "cement" and the "fittings" were stolen while constructing the "building" of the state of Armenia, and as a result of the "earthquake," this “building” could not withstand this "shock."

"When we became the power [in Armenia] in 2018, we have carried out desperate actions aimed at strengthening this 'building'—starting with the armed forces. Today, none of the former authorities has the right to blame us—neither morally nor politically," Pashinyan stated, in particular.