“The problem remains unresolved just like it was before,” Pashinian said in his address to the nation on Thursday.
“We have a lot to do in this sense in the future,” he added.
The trilateral statement on November 10 sparked large-scale protests in Armenia, with opposition forces accusing Pashinian of treachery.
Armenia signed the document putting an end to a bloody six-week war after a series of defeats in the battlefield that the prime minister said forced the Armenian military to seek a diplomatic way out of the conflict.
Under the terms of the accord with Azerbaijan, by December Armenian forces will gradually withdraw from three districts held since the 1994 ceasefire agreement, while Azerbaijan will keep the territory in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas captured during the conflict.
Armenians will also forfeit the Lachin region, where a crucial road connects Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. The agreement calls for a 5-kilometer wide area in the so-called Lachin Corridor to remain open and be protected by around 2,000 Russian peacekeepers.
The agreement also calls for Russian border services to monitor a new transport corridor through Armenia connecting Azerbaijan to its western exclave of Nakhijevan, which is surrounded by Armenia, Iran, and Turkey.
Amid growing political tensions in Armenia nearly two dozen opposition parties demanded Pashinian’s resignation over the deal viewed by them as an act of surrender.
They reiterated their demands during rallies and street protests organized the following day.
At least a dozen opposition politicians, including leaders of political parties, have been arrested so far on charges of organizing disorders as authorities said they defied martial law by organizing and holding rallies.
In his address to the nation Pashinian sought to reaffirm his control of the situation, stressing that restoration of an atmosphere of stability and security is a priority for his government. He called on citizens to rally around the government so as to be able to overcome the current situation and ensure further development of Armenia.
Pashinian again defended his decision to put an end to hostilities at the cost of concessions, saying that the continuation of fighting was fraught with even greater losses, including the lives of thousands of Armenian soldiers.
Pashinian said that signing the deal prevented a collapse of Armenian defense lines and encirclement of up to 25,000 soldiers that would be cut off from the rear.
“In such a situation it is not the soldier that ought to die for the homeland, but it is the homeland that ought to make a sacrifice for the soldier,” the prime minister said.
Pashinian admitted that the document he signed is “bad for us.” “But it should not be presented as worse than it is,” he said, discarding the talk about Armenia ceding territories in the south as absolute nonsense.
He said that the matter concerns unblocking transport communications in the region from which Armenia could also benefit.
The prime minister emphasized that the tasks regarding the status of Nagorno-Karabakh have not changed. “The international recognition of Artsakh [the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh] becomes an absolute priority and there are more weighty arguments for that now,” Pashinian said.