YEREVAN. – Past daily of Armenia writes: Recently, during one of his regular public speeches, [PM] Nikol Pashinyan [of Armenia] had implied at reducing the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] Defense Army [(DA)]. According to the Artsakh source of Past newspaper, Pashinyan's statement regarding the reduction of the DA was taken very hard in Artsakh.

It is true [that] Pashinyan was implying in his speech that this could happen if there is an international guarantee, as well as a demilitarized territory, but all this was perceived in Artsakh as the final stage of the process of dismantling the Defense Army. Moreover, we also have information that there is strong resistance in Artsakh on this issue.

In particular, they clearly state in Artsakh that they will not allow such a thing, and Pashinyan is not the person to decide how the people of Artsakh should defend themselves, and they are not going to tolerate the final destruction of the army.