The Armenian National Assembly today launched a debate about the Pashinyan government's performance in 2020.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed MPs and focused on last year’s war in Artsakh.

He referred to discussions that a referendum should be called for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, claiming that the public had been misled on the issue.

Pashinyan said that there was a provision for a referendum in the negotiation packages that should express the free will of the entire population of Nagorno Karabakh.

"There is no emphasis on where the referendum will take place. This is a fundamentally important issue, because Azerbaijan has always held the position that the status of any part of its internationally accepted territory can be clarified only by the referendum to be held in Azerbaijan. This was the position of Azerbaijan. When asked by the mediators how we will interpret this provision, the mediators said with a comment on which both Azerbaijan and Armenia will agree," he said.

Pashinyan also touched upon the question of what the whole population of Nagorno-Karabakh means. According to him, Azerbaijan accepts this as meanings internally displaced persons, including family members born after the deportation. He said that about 40,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from the NKAO territory during the first Artsakh war.

"And what question will be put to the referendum? Who will formulate that question? There were no clear answers. A very powerful and principled nuance was hidden from the public. When Serzh Sargsyan said that Azerbaijan rejects the Madrid Principles, and there is a similar notion of interim status, Azerbaijan refused to discuss interim status. And it seems that in such conditions, as a result of negotiation skills, the Armenian side would be able to persuade the mediators to accept the interim status of Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.

Pashinyan said that this position of Azerbaijan was supported by the mediators in 2014-15. The April 2016 War started after the Armenian side was offered a chance to renounce the demand for registration of the interim status of Nagorno-Karabakh but was rejected.

Pashinyan also spoke about the former leaders of Armenia, in particular, the second and third presidents.

"The Kocharyan-Sargsyan tandem used the Karabakh issue to gain power in 1998, lost the negotiation process for 20 years, won the first war, hid all the deprivations of the Armenian people in Baden-Baden, built private houses on the Greek islands, were defeated in the field of diplomacy and in army building. You are the capitulator, the traitor. I say this to the elite who have plundered and ruled Armenia for twenty years," he said.

Pashinyan claimed that he and his team fight every day, sometimes even to the death, against the capitulation, the betrayal of the previous authorities, and will continue their "cherished and unceasing struggle for a free, powerful, happy Armenia."

Pashinyan addressed the Armenians living in Armenia and the Diaspora, assuring them that there is no need to despair, as there is a future in both Artsakh and Armenia.

My Step MPs then stood up and applauded Pashinyan.

"We should raise the issue of de-occupation of the NKAO territory as a negotiating issue, but we should formulate this not as a military issue, but as a negotiating political issue. We must continue to implement the secession for salvation formula," he said.

According to Pashinyan, the security of Artsakh will continue to be carried out by the Defense Army together with the Russian peacekeepers.

He added that they are discussing the issue of strengthening the capabilities of the 102nd military base in Gyumri with Russia and that discussions are underway with the Russian side on the establishment of a Russian military base in Armenia’s Syunik Province.