“Many people believe that Shushi was simply conceded. I read the President of Artsakh’s status today, in which he unfortunately mentioned that over 100 of our soldier’s bodies were found in Shushi. If Shushi were conceded, then why and under whose command did those soldiers fight?” Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during his online press conference regarding discussions about Shushi’s concession.
According to him, political platforms are making statements that state that there are concrete data and individuals who are prepared to confirm that a conspiracy took place surrounding Shushi. “Law enforcement agents invited the author of that statement for an investigation and attempted to gather information about the conspirators. As far as I know, the author avoided providing specific responses. Therefore, if there was any form of betrayal and someone announces that they have information about that, but they avoid providing that information to law enforcement, then they are participating in that conspiracy. If they do not trust law enforcement, they should announce it publicly.”
According to Pashinyan, what was announced officially is what really happened in Shushi.
Regarding an early statement about Shushi that the city needed to have been conceded without a battle in order to stop the war earlier, Pashinyan explained, “I said earlier that any resolution that was acceptable to Armenians was unacceptable to Azerbaijan. Once again, it is important to understand if we could have avoided war. Yes, we could have if we agreed to concede the seven regions, including Shushi, to Azerbaijan. But was that the policy we wanted to adopt? No. Our government, Armed Forces, and the Defense Army of Artsakh agreed to accept the challenge. Unfortunately, that did not bring about the result that we wanted, but that is also due to the fact that the inevitability of loss was at the front lines from the first day. Politicians who were saying that we should concede territory in order to stop the war are now accusing the government of betrayal. There is no difference between sooner and later. Yes, the condition of conceding Shushi was not there in the beginning. Since we still had the opportunity to defend ourselves, the general staff of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense decided to fight until the end, heroically, until the last second. Unfortunately, we were unable to resolve that problem, and we are the ones responsible because, in many cases, we were unable to make up for what has not been accomplished over the course of decades.”
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Luiza Sukiasyan
