Azerbaijan has set a task to do everything to complete its policy of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this at Thursday’s Cabinet meeting of the government of Armenia. He added as follows:

"In this sense, the statement issued by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry the day before, which said that the issue of [natural] gas supply to Artsakh is an internal affair of Azerbaijan, is very symbolic and telling. If we ‘translate’ this statement from the diplomatic lingo, it will mean, ‘International community, do not look, and allow us to complete without obstructions, unnoticed by the international community or under the name of 'anti-terrorist operations,' the policy of ethnic cleansing and liberation of Artsakh from Armenians through a policy of genocide.’ Such a thing cannot happen, and Armenia’s diplomatic service, other officials, political forces, the media, NGOs, individuals, must present in full detail and broadly—through social media—to the international community, in all instances, what happened in Artsakh during the last 15 days.

Dear compatriots, of course, many react to this event by reminding and criticizing the policy we have adopted of opening an era of peaceful development for our country and the region. But I want to state unequivocally that this policy we have adopted has no alternative. On the contrary, through these actions of its, various provocations, Azerbaijan is trying to divert us from the peace agenda, to delegitimize that agenda in order to implement its policy of provoking new escalations, new wars in the region. But we should not give in to such provocations. I have said that in order to bring the peace agenda to fruition, we need strong nerves, and we must not deviate from our declared strategy in any way. Strategy is a strategy by the fact that it should guide us in all situations."