Accompanied by Gegharkunik Marz Governor Gnel Sanosyan, Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Kuth village.

2nd Army Corps Commander, Major General Arayik Harutyunyan reported on the border situation and the actions undertaken by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia.

The Acting Prime Minister met with the residents of Kuth village. He made some important emphases as to what to do in the current situation: “First and foremost, we need to get consolidated in this situation. Why? Because every time Azerbaijan realizes that it can drive us against each other, it gets more and more enthusiastic trying to do so. We must make it clear that despite our internal divisions, consolidation will be our first response to their actions. This is extremely important. I would like to note that during this period we did not pay due attention to this issue. And here we are, the families of all our victims, the families of our captive compatriots, all the residents of our border villages, from downtown Yerevan to the provinces, we are all one family, one hearth, and we must be guided by this logic. There should be no doubts in this regard.

Sobriety is the second imperative. It is obvious that the situation is quite stressful and too sensitive, but we should never lose our sobriety. Neither must we lose the sense of balance, because if we lose sobriety and poise, we will be prevented from assessing the situation accurately and making the right decisions.

The next important task is to be able to distinguish the truth from fake news in terms of information, not to succumb to speculative tricks, and not to become a victim of information warfare.

I want to say it again, I say it in this community, I say it with a look in all your eyes, let no one even think that the incumbent government is involved in some shady, dark deals, or conspiracies. There can be no such thing at all. Looking you straight in the eye, I assure you that it is impossible.

The next thing is not to lose your will power. Living in this village, living in these communities, you are already becoming heroes, it is not for me to tell you - you are heroic people. We should not lose the strength of our will power; we must clearly defend our state, our sovereignty, our independence, our citizenship. This is crucial; this is what matters most. And in this situation we are of course overwhelmed with emotional love for the Motherland, but we should not take emotional steps. We must clearly analyze what is happening, we must understand what is going on and solve the problem step by step.

What's going on now? Many people keep asking this question. The point is that Azerbaijan wants to take away our sovereignty; they want to take away our statehood; they want to deprive us of our Motherland.

Why is the Karabakh issue still not settled? Let us go back to September 27, 2020, because Azerbaijan used to decline any compromise that Armenia agreed to. That is, it was said: okay, let us make concessions for the sake of peace. When Armenia was ready to make these concessions, the very next moment Azerbaijan undermined the process, trying to achieve even more concessions.

I will now dwell on the current situation. Today’s situation is obvious: Azerbaijan has infringed on the state border of the Republic of Armenia. There can be no other viewpoints or opinions here. And there can be no question of a concession, because you understand that if we give up our border, it will, on the contrary, encourage them even more. We are stating clearly: this is our sovereign territory under international law and all Azerbaijani troops must definitely leave our territory. And here we must demonstrate our firm resolution.

But on the other hand, we should not let the situation go of control. And today, first of all, we must advance this agenda by diplomatic means; we must formulate a clear-cut demand on international platforms.

The United States has acknowledged that this is our sovereign territory and the Azerbaijanis need to pull back; France, India and other countries did so. The European Parliament adopted a resolution stating this fact. The Russian Federation recognizes that this is our territory. And we must achieve their withdrawal through consistent, well-balanced, decisive and not nervous steps.

Please do not believe in any conspiracy theories. We tell you what we intend and what we think. And we must be consistent. Today’s incident happened in the following way: we were conducting engineering works on the border, as we always do, when 6 of our servicemen were captured on our territory. They must be immediately returned to the Republic of Armenia. This is our clear and unequivocal position.”

Nikol Pashinyan’s trip was concluded with a consultation held with the heads of local communities at the Vardenis City Hall.