Before the war, in mid-September, the president of Azerbaijan had revealed some of Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan's requests to him not to shoot at the border in 2018, which was conditioned by his intention that it would be calm at the border so that he could solve the issues of his political opponents. Armen Ashotyan, Deputy Chairman of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), stated this at a press conference on Monday, reminding that at that time the opponent was the RPA.

"Nikol Pashinyan has sold the domestic political life, the democracy of Armenia through the ‘elevator’ arrangement reached in Dushanbe, including the Vienna and St. Petersburg arrangements, in order to reproduce his power. The [recent Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war was visible to many. The fact that Nikol Pashinyan's seizure of power in 2018 was conditioned by the Artsakh issue was visible to us from the very first day," Ashotyan stated in particular.

He added that PM Pashinyan had been deliberately destroying Armenia's negotiating positions for the past 2.5 years.

"He invited Turkey to the region; that is, Nikol Pashinyan sold the ‘ticket’ for Turkey toward the Artsakh war; at the same time, doing everything possible to push Russia out of the South Caucasus," Armen Ashotyan said.