“When you misquote what the President of Azerbaijan said by putting it into a question addressed to me, any answer I give will already be incorrect until the basis of the question is clarified,” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a parliamentary briefing, responding to a question about why, despite the establishment of peace, the President of Azerbaijan continues to use harsh rhetoric — referring to Lake Sevan as Goycha and to Vardenis as Basargechar.
Pashinyan clarified the basis of the question, explaining:
“Did the President of Azerbaijan say that in a map from Tsarist times there was no Sevan, that it had another name? Well, I’m saying that on that same map, Armenia exists, but Azerbaijan does not.
Now, the President of Azerbaijan says that on some map of a certain year, Sevan is not written, another name is written. So what? I’m asking in return — if we are going back in time, how far back should we go?” he said.
