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Pashinyan: Karabakh issue was considered resolved at the OSCE Lisbon Summit in 1996

08 May 2026 11:21 (UTC +04:00)

There had been no peace in Armenia since the first days of independence, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in response to claims that there had been peace in Armenia before the current government came to power in 2018, while the actions of the current authorities brought war, Armenpress reports.

“We had war because every year we had losses and wounded. Where did you see peace in a place where soldiers were being killed and wounded? We had no peace, we had a permanent war and a constant postponement of the start of war. The final point of this postponement was declared with the April War of 2016,” Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister noted that the framework for resolving the Karabakh issue had been determined during the OSCE Lisbon Summit in 1996, and at that time the Karabakh issue was already considered resolved: “All these delays and postponements were primarily aimed at preventing the resolution of the Armenia issue, that is, preventing the establishment of the Armenian state. We understood that Armenia had fallen into a trap, and our task was to pull it out of that trap.”

Pashinyan emphasized that Armenia had been pulled out of this trap at the cost of losses. He described this as an important factor.

According to him, under the scenario that existed in 2018, Armenia was not supposed to be a sovereign state.

“At best, Armenia was supposed to be a banana state that received permission to breathe from various places,” the Armenian Prime Minister added.