Armenian FM resigns after PM claims Karabakh war was ‘preventable’ by return of outlying regions

Scandals and instability continue in Armenia following the Karabakh truce on November 10.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made a statement earlier today alleging that the war could have been avoided “if we had agreed to transfer seven regions to Azerbaijan, including Shushi.”

As a result, Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan resigned.

On November 16, speaking in parliament, the Prime Minister again stated that the negotiation process to resolve the Karabakh conflict by 2018, when he took office, was irreversibly leading to the surrender of territories. 

Parallel to the live broadcast from the parliament, the Armenian media published a refutation of this statement according to the press secretary of the Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan. She stated that “at no stage of the peace process on Nagorno-Karabakh there was a question of giving up the city of Shushi.”

Nikol Pashinyan was informed about Naghdalian’s statement right in the hall of the National Assembly.

Then the prime minister specified that the Azerbaijani side, at least, demanded the return of its refugees there.

“And I decided to fire the [foreign] minister,” Pashinyan added.

A few minutes after this statement, it became known that Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan had resigned.

On her Facebook page, a ministry spokeswoman posted a snapshot of Mnatsakanyan’s statement, which says:

“Please accept my resignation. Thank you for your trust and teamwork.”

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan has served as Foreign Minister since May 2018.  He was appointed by Prime Minister Pashinyan himself after the 2018 velvet revolution.