Pashinyan drops agenda of historical justice

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he is fully abandoning the agenda of restoring so-called historical justice.

He also stated that former authorities of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh had kept the people of Karabakh in a hostage-like situation for unclear purposes.

“I completely reject the agenda of restoring so-called historical justice. I believe we should pursue real, present-day justice, not attempt to restore historical justice,” he said, according to Aysor.am .

Pashinyan urged society to move away from what he described as a “refugee and expatriate mindset.”

“I appeal to you — let us move away from the logic of being refugees or expatriates, because we have reached home, and Armenia is our home. We must take ownership of our home, rather than constantly treating Armenia as a temporary shelter before returning elsewhere,” he said.

Responding to a question about whether Azerbaijan carried out ethnic cleansing against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan said he considers such rhetoric harmful.

“We can say ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and in response we will hear ‘ethnic cleansing,’ then ‘genocide.’ That means entering a path of escalation. My concern is not that. My concern is what we should do to ensure that our people displaced from Karabakh can achieve peace, have housing, jobs, security, and freedom,” he said.

On March 22, during a metro ride, Pashinyan attempted to give a woman traveling with her young son a badge shaped like the map of Armenia, but she refused, saying: “We have a different map.” During the exchange, Pashinyan said: “None of you should speak dismissively about this map. Next time, don’t try to say that I ‘gave away Karabakh.’” Later, he invited Armine Mosiyan — daughter of fallen commander Meruzhan Mosiyan — to the government building to apologize live.