Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that the country was not in a state of peace until September 2020, but rather in a “frozen war.”
AzerNEWS reports, citing Armenian media outlets, that Pashinyan made the remarks during a government meeting on March 26.
“We did not have peace (until September 2020 - ed.), it was a frozen war. The war was postponed at the expense of our sovereignty, independence, statehood, prosperity, freedom and development. By 2016, all resources to postpone the war had already been exhausted,” he said.
Pashinyan added that peace is not only a political concept but also a socio-psychological one. “I would like to condemn all these trends aimed at keeping our compatriots displaced from Karabakh and the Armenian people as a whole in refugee status. Peace is not just an agreement, peace is a state in which a person calms down. There is nothing more cruel and painful than waiting. But we, as a people, have been living with this expectation for more than a hundred years. This is an imperial, anti-Armenian policy, according to which there is no need to calm down, you will soon return, the genocide will be recognized internationally, and you will return to Van, Musha, Cilicia. This policy pursues two goals: first, to preserve the refugee consciousness among the Armenian people, and second, to prevent the Republic of Armenia from forming as a state. By continuing these conversations (about return - ed.), we are entering into conflict with everyone around us.”
