YEREVAN. – A recently published document discussing the Meghri transfer program states that the Meghri region is being transferred to Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)], the Shushi region and the Lachin region are being transferred to Armenia. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia stated this at Friday’s meeting with the ruling Civil Contract Party supporters at Ajapnyak district of Yerevan.

"I am not reflecting on the content yet, pay attention to the wording: 'The NKAO territory, Shushi, Lachin region.' Shushi is separated from Karabakh and is put in the same line with Lachin. (…). First, a reference is made to the documents, then to other documents, from which it can be concluded that in this context, not only he who was born there, then went out, but also his child, grandson, etc. born after that are considered a resident [of Artsakh]. (…).

Next, to be considered a resident of Nagorno-Karabakh, you must live in Karabakh. Then where would the Azerbaijani people of Karabakh live? They would live where they lived in 1988. So how do you say that there was no issue of Shushi, when that issue was in the document of 1999, the document of 2007, the document of 2013 and 2016-2018? There are diplomatic nuances; everything does not have to be written directly," Pashinyan stated.

According to him, his political team came to power in Armenia in 2018 and tried to quickly fortify the Armenia state "building" that was constructed with stolen "cement" and "armature"—and first of all the armed forces. "Nobody asks why there should have been a problem [in the first place] in the RA [Republic of Armenia] Armed Forces in 2018 (…)," Pashinyan added.

"You should know that we are 100% honest toward our country. There are many shortcomings (…), but no one can accuse us of the degree of devotion to the homeland,” the acting PM noted.

"Yes, there was a way to avoid the [Artsakh] war [last fall]: to hand over [to Azerbaijan] all seven regions [contiguous to Artsakh] without conditions, and to hand over half of Karabakh, including Shushi; and to leave the fate of the rest of Karabakh uncertain. By the way, if we had assessed that this is a deal worth going for, we would have gone for it; but this was the ‘price.’ [But] we believed that we should fight, that we should not surrender,” Nikol Pashinyan added, in particular.