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The number of people killed in the 44-day war in Artsakh stands at 3,825, Nikol Pashinyan told lawmakers in the parliament on Wednesday, adding that most of them were identified and buried in 2021.

He highlighted that he admitted his guilt and responsibility for both the war and Armenia’s defeat in it right from the beginning.

“But I have not and will not accept the accusations against me made by the opposition after November 9, 2020, accusing me of handing over lands and thus betraying the country,” Pashinyan said.

He states he should not be accused of handing over lands, but rather "of not handing them over".

"I am guilty because in 2018 and 2019 I did not tell the people that all friends of Armenia expected it to surrender the seven regions to Azerbaijan in one configuration or another and lower the bar we set for the Artsakh status. I am guilty for not telling the people that the international community unequivocally recognizes Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and expects us to recognize it too, and also expects the Azerbaijanis who left Karabakh to be fully involved in determining the future of Nagorno-Karabakh and its governance,” Pashinyan said.

“I am guilty of not announcing clearly and unequivocally that even the scenarios unacceptable for us were not acceptable for Azerbaijan, and representatives of the international community were telling us – sometimes openly, sometimes diplomatically –  that if the Armenian side accepted all that, we would still have to convince Azerbaijan to accept it too. I had to present all that to our people in detail," he said.

According to him, his statements are not aimed at mitigating the situation.

"On the contrary, I am further aggravating it, because by surrendering [the lands], I would have probably saved thousands of lives, and by refusing to surrender them, I actually became the author of decisions that led to thousands of victims," he stressed.