The official death toll at this time is about 3,700, which we assume could reach 4,000. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the ruling Civil Contract Party’s candidate for the post of Prime Minister of Armenia, stated this Monday during their election campaign at Geghakert village of Armavir Province, speaking about the number of Armenian casualties in the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war last fall.

"Can anyone explain why they [the former Armenian authorities] are manipulating, saying 5 thousand, 7 thousand? Is that their wish? What is the [meaning to] increase the number of casualties? They have become the lawyer of the Azerbaijani authorities. In fact, the Azerbaijani authorities can say, ‘Well, they say, they massacred, they started the war, they committed war crimes.’ These people have become the lawyer of Azerbaijan. They want to say that the Azerbaijani authorities did not massacre our soldiers, we massacred our soldiers. Meanwhile, we [the incumbent Armenian authorities] have tried to protect our homeland from the disgraceful legacy of negotiations left by them. But during the war, they were calling the [army] generals, saying, 'Why are you fighting [in Artsakh]? Come, fight in Yerevan.' They continue to move the war to the territory of Armenia, they want to turn Armenia into a stage for a civil war, but we must not allow that," Pashinyan added, urging people to vote for stability.