65-year-old Yura Hayrapetyan, who works in Stepanakert’s botanical garden, tells Hetq that Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan should resign for recognizing Nagorno Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan.

On May 22, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, when pressed by reporters during a press conference, confessed that his government recognizes Nagorno Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan.

Hayrapetyan describes Pashinyan’s position as “defeatist”, adding that he and other Karabakh residents will fight to remain free of Azerbaijani control.

Yura Hayrapetyan

"If we have to fight, we will fight. If Azerbaijan shoots, we should also shoot. Pashinyan should resign now. It is impossible to remain a part of Azerbaijan. If Artsakh is part of Azerbaijan, there will be no Armenians left here. Consider it a genocide, they will be massacred. What happened in Nakhijevan, they will do the same here. We have nowhere else to go. OK, I leave. What about my parents and my wife who are here? If you were born here, you will die here," says Hayrapetyan.

36-year-old Ruzan Hayrapetyan says Pashinyan's boast before the 2020 Karabakh war that “Artsakh is Armenia, period” was mere populism.

Ruzan Hayrapetyan believes Armenians will ultimately leave Artsakh if it becomes a part of Azerbaijan and are tired of living in constant fear of what might happen.

“Step by step everything will be much worse than it is now. On the day of his announcement, the same people who came out during the revolution should have gathered and demanded Pashinyan's resignation," says Ruzan Hayrapetyan, referring to Pashinyan’s recent bombshell announcement.

"We need a Monte, we need a Bekor. Someone who will be smart in addition to fighting. We have no weapons, no soldiers. We have nothing now. But now we must prove to the world again that this is Armenian land, that our ancestors lived here, and we must continue to live here," says Ruzan Hayrapetyan, referring to Monte Melkonian and Bekor Ashot (Ashot Ghulyan), two military leaders who fought and died during the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s.

Gayaneh Sargsyan

28-year-old Gayaneh Sargsyan said Pashinyan has no right to negotiate the future of Karabakh Armenians, adding that she and others of her generation must follow the example of their parents who fought for their rights.

either. I am sure that people living in Artsakh should not allow someone to make decisions for them.

“I think that if we put our feet firmly on this land, we will be able to keep Artsakh and continue to stay in Artsakh. Naturally, we all want it to be without war. When people cry for war, they should be sure that when the day of war comes, they will be here and not going anywhere.”