Armenian premier says 'immobility' of military one reason of defeat in 2020 Karabakh war

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Tuesday that one of the reasons why Yerevan was defeated during the Second Karabakh War in the fall of 2020 was due to issues related to the "immobility" of the country’s military.

"This was a fundamental problem. We lost a lot of people not during military operations, but during movement. And the enemy (Azerbaijan) moved in small groups, they knew that there was a group, but they lost a lot of time to detect them," Pashinyan said during a parliamentary meeting in the capital Yerevan, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

The report further said Pashinyan expressed it will take time to form an "ideal army," but that they "need to work in this direction every minute."

Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and seven adjacent regions.

In the fall of 2020 in 44 days of fighting, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages, and settlements from Armenian occupation. The Russian-brokered peace agreement is celebrated as a triumph in Azerbaijan.

Despite ongoing peace talks between Baku and Yerevan, tensions between the neighboring countries have escalated in recent months due to the Lachin corridor, which serves as the sole land route providing Armenia access to Karabakh.