Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says former presidents and their allies do not represent the public and criticizes their past leadership decisions.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that former Presidents — Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Serzh Sargsyan и Robert Kocharyan — and their political forces do not represent the people of Armenia and have never had a connection with the Armenian people.

“Levon Ter-Petrosyan is the one who dragged the Armenian people in this adventure,” he said, as reported by 1lurer.am .

Referring to the events of 2023, Pashinyan said that a session of Armenia’s Security Council analyzed the outcomes of military operations. According to him, circulating claims do not correspond to reality, as available data indicate that most of the weapons and ammunition were not used.

“I would prefer not to address this topic, but I must note that after the events of 2023, a Security Council meeting analyzed the results of military actions. Without disclosing much, I want to state that claims about fighting and so on, to put it mildly, do not correspond to reality, because according to our intelligence and other data, the lion’s share — possibly 80–90 percent — of available weapons and ammunition remained unused,” he said.

He also noted that prior to those developments, there had been an opportunity for political processes, but certain groups obstructed them and carried out a change of power in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Before that, we had created an opportunity for a political process, but some representatives of the ruling circles in Karabakh not only obstructed it but carried out a change of power there, and in Armenia’s National Assembly they congratulated each other. Just a week after those congratulations, the events that followed took place.

If 10 days earlier we had said that sharp developments would occur — and we did say it — at that time the Civil Contract faction in parliament was actively giving assessments of what the consequences would be. But despite those assessments and warnings, people were congratulating each other, saying, ‘Look what we will now do in Karabakh, and what we will do next in Armenia.’ I want to confirm that what they did in Karabakh, they intend to do next in Armenia. Moreover, some of them — representatives of ruling circles and political forces — literally fled from Karabakh, while accusing me of closing the borders and not allowing people to leave.

I even recall a meeting with civil society representatives (I was at Baghramyan 26 at the time), when they came and demanded that I open the border. I said the border was not closed, of course, but I also warned Karabakh representatives that if they left, there would be no opportunity to return,” he said.

Addressing the topic of genocide, the prime minister stated: “It is time to stop feeding our people with narratives about new genocides, and in general, this race of genocides must end. When everyone in our region accuses everyone of genocide, through genocide rhetoric we receive more genocide rhetoric; through return rhetoric we receive more return rhetoric. All of this is about one thing — not allowing the people of Armenia, including the people of Karabakh, to achieve peace, keeping them in the status of migrants and refugees, giving hope that one day the international community will recognize the genocide, that one day the Treaty of Sèvres will work.

Our policy and strategy are the following: we must make peace. As Charents once said, there is the Republic of Armenia and nothing else — therefore we must settle in the Republic of Armenia. And those myths — that they fought to the end and so on — are lies; nothing like that happened. At the right time I will decide and publish the documents. That did not happen; they fled, escaped — including during the 44-day war — under a plan to present that escape as a betrayal by the Armenian government and, under that cover, to carry out a change of power in Armenia. They failed. Do you know why? Because they are neither the people of Armenia nor the people of Karabakh.

Those individuals have never represented the people of Armenia or Karabakh because they lacked legitimacy. The people did not elect Robert Kocharyan or Serzh Sargsyan; they elected Levon Ter-Petrosyan once and did not elect him again. They have never been legitimate leaders of Armenia. The last representatives of Karabakh also had no legitimacy at all. Whom they represent must be clarified — and that is what is being clarified now. Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Serzh Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan and their political forces represent anyone but the people of Armenia. They have never had any connection with the Armenian people, and it was Levon Ter-Petrosyan who, through his leadership, dragged Armenia and its people into this adventure.”