Loss of control over Shusha turning point in war: Armenian PM

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has called the loss of control over the city of Shusha a "turning point" in the 44-day Second Karabakh War with Azerbaijan, after which he said Yerevan had no choice but to sign the trilateral statement.

Answering questions from a parliamentary commission, established to investigate his actions during the war, Pashinyan said that after "difficult and lengthy discussions," he signed with Azerbaijan and Russia a trilateral statement that ended the war.

"After the loss of Shusha, Stepanakert (Armenian name for the city of Hankendi) was under attack, pressure on Martuni inevitably increased, and most importantly, 25,000 of our soldiers were under threat of encirclement," he said.

In response to Pashinyan's speech in the Armenian parliament, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry released a statement, saying that the Armenian premier distorted the number of negotiations conducted during the Second Karabakh War.

Pashinyan's speech, it said, demonstrated Armenia's refusal to liberate Azerbaijani territories through negotiations.

His denial of the shelling of the densely populated Azerbaijani cities outside of the war zone after every negotiation also demonstrated how Armenia "distorts the facts," it added.

"It is necessary for Armenia to learn from its historical mistakes and abandon its efforts to impede the successful outcome of the peace process in the post-conflict period," the statement concluded.

The Armenian premier claimed he had phone talks 60 times with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who served as a mediator, and 20 of those calls were held on November 8 and even on November 9, 2020, when the agreement was sealed.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from Armenian occupation in the 2020 fall during 44 days of fighting.

The Russian-brokered peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.