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Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday denied a claim of Onik Gasparyan, the former chief of the army’s General Staff, that the latter called for immediate action to stop the war in Artsakh shortly after it launched on 27 September 2020.

"Today I consider it appropriate to address a number of speculations and questions about the war. We have had misunderstandings during this period. I want to start with the statement made by former Chief of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan on November 17, 2020, that on the fourth day of the war he briefed about our losses during the Security Council meeting and noted that it was necessary to take measures within 2-3 days to stop the war. I would like to responsibly and officially declare from this tribune that this part of Onik Gasparyan's statement has nothing to do with reality. The then General Staff chief did not say such a thing; there is also an audio recording,” Pashinyan said at the National Assembly.

He noted that the matter concerns the meeting of the Security Council on September 30, where Onik Gasparyan said that “the adversary does not have any advancement, our army is fulfilling its tasks and will continue to do so till the end”.

At the same time, the premier underlined that Onik Gasparyan could not make such a statement on September 30, since in his report at the August 21 Security Council meeting he had assured that “in the direction of Artsakh, with our forces and means we can repel, foil the enemy’s attacks and destroy its units adhering to the “not a single step back” principle.”