“Building statehood is an absolute priority for us today,” said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. “We are not talking only about the state itself, but also about its essence, purpose, and content,” he said, recalling his speech on the real Armenia and Historical Armenia.
“In the late 1980s, the idea of the independence of the Republic of Armenia was generated not for the sake of independence and statehood but for the sake of resolving the Karabakh issue. In other words, we created an independent state not for a better life but for the sake of the Karabakh issue,” he said. According to the Prime Minister, for about 30 years, a model of the state has been built, essentially dedicated to resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, the Karabakh movement, and the logic of sacrificing everything for it. He noted that he was at peace with that model until the moment when, along with gaining access to facts and information, he gradually understood: “If for us independence and statehood are a means for our imagined solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, for several external actors the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is a means to prevent our independence, statehood, development, and prosperity, and then to put an end to our statehood.” According to him, the implementation of that ultimate goal started in 2018, entered its final stage in September 2020, and reached its peak in May 2021. “That ultimate goal also has factors in the Republic of Armenia.”
He also emphasized: “The ruling majority and I say that any attempt to continue the Karabakh movement is destructive because it has been and will be a tool to prevent the statehood, independence, and sovereignty of Armenia.”
