After November 9, 2020, the most discussed and criticized episode is that there was supposedly an opportunity to end the war with Shushi remaining under Armenian control, but I missed it. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the National Assembly committee investigating the circumstances of the 44-day war.
"On October 19, 2020, the President of the Russian Federation told me that the Azerbaijani side has one more condition, he expects guarantees that the Azerbaijani refugees, who, according to the Azerbaijani side, made up 90 percent of the population of Shushi before the conflict, return to Shushi. For the Russian side, this was an understandable proposal, because they said that the return of refugees and internally displaced persons to Nagorno-Karabakh was always included in the settlement plan of the Karabakh conflict, which was on the table many years ago. This is the reason why after November 9, I announced in the national Assembly that the Shushi issue was always on the negotiation agenda, because if it is said that Azerbaijanis should return to Nagorno-Karabakh, there is a need to clarify that they should return to the settlements where they lived before. I was accused of saying that if I agreed that the Azerbaijanis would return to Shushi, it would remain under Armenian control, and even if inhabited by Azerbaijanis, it would be Armenian", said the Prime Minister.
Although Pashinyan considered that wording to be problematic, when Shushi's issue was raised, he tried to find out what the expected guarantees of Azerbaijanis should look like, according to the proposed version.
"As a result of that conversation, it turned out that I have to announce that I agree with the return of Azerbaijani refugees to Shushi and other settlements of Karabakh", said the Prime Minister, emphasizing that the Russian President suggested that this issue be linked to the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.
"In other words, the issue of the return of Azerbaijanis to the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region is being resolved in the context of the Karabakh status issue, at the same time as the supposed decision on it. I agreed to this wording, but the Azerbaijani side, as before, rejected it, saying that it was not ready to discuss any issues related to the status. Moreover, according to the proposal made at that time, not only all Azerbaijanis living in Shushi should have direct and unhindered access to Shushi. Let's say, for example, 50,000 Azerbaijanis can visit an Azerbaijani living in Shushi and there cannot be any restrictions here. They can even go and stay, but the most important question is how will their movement be ensured? It turned out that a new road connecting Shushi to Azerbaijan would have to be built so that Azerbaijanis would not have to use the Lachin Corridor or any other existing road to reach Shushi. In other words, according to Azerbaijan's proposal at the time, Shushi should have at least 95 percent Azerbaijani population, in fact, with no further increase restrictions or controls, they should have a separate road connecting Shushi to Azerbaijan, which should be out of the Lachin Corridor and under their control. It means that there could be Azerbaijani armed units there, and this in turn means that it was, without exaggeration, about handing over Shushi to Adbejan.
At the time, one of the practical reasons for not accepting this proposal was that it meant the Lachin Corridor would not work, because the Azerbaijanis could close it at any time, because Shushi would not enter the Lachin Corridor; and the Lachin Corridor would pass a few meters next to Shushi. The events of the last period proved my prediction at that time with circumstances known to everyone", said Nikol Pashinyan.
