In 2018 and 2019, I had to inform the people that all our friends and partners—both distant and close—are expecting—in this or that configuration—from us to hand over the infamous seven regions around Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)] to Azerbaijan. Also, they had proposed to us to lower the bar, which we set ourselves, for the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated this Wednesday during the National Assembly debates on the execution of the 2021 program of the government of Armenia.

According to him, the international community recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and expects the full involvement of the Azerbaijani population who left Karabakh in the process of determining the future status and fate of Karabakh.

"By handing over the territories, I perhaps could have saved thousands of lives. [But] by refusing to do that, I, in fact, became the culprit of the death of thousands of people," Pashinyan added.