The goal was to attack Armenia and conquer and destroy Armenia. Alen Simonyan, speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, stated this while speaking with reporters in the NA Monday—and referring to the events of September 2023, as a result of which Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was de-Armenianized by Azerbaijan. "Do you understand that during the last September events in Artsakh, the goal was to occupy the territories of Armenia, to destroy Armenia as a state, and annex it to any union structure? That is, Armenia’s authorities were to enter into that game which was imposed on us so that the Republic of Armenia would no longer exist? Yes, a very difficult decision was made when there was an attack on Nagorno-Karabakh [by Azerbaijan] and the population had to leave. But the price of that decision was the Republic of Armenia. That is, is there anyone here who thinks that Armenia's sovereignty should have been put up for negotiation in any case? I don't think so," said Alen Simonyan.