Pashinyan says conflict could have been avoided only if Armenia gave up land near Karabakh - TASS

The conflict between the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and Azerbaijan could only have been avoided if Yerevan had agreed to give up five districts around Karabakh, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday during a live feed on Facebook.

"Could the war have been prevented? Yes, if we had agreed to give up five areas around Karabakh. But in this case, the matter of Karabakh’s status would not have been fully resolved either. What would you have told me if I had asked you whether we should give up the territories around Karabakh? I think no one would have agreed to that, myself included," he said.

Pashinyan added that the events in Karabakh are a tragedy, noting that he is personally responsible for what happened.