Author: Ophelia Vardapetian

Friends, please interpret Nairi Hokhikyan’s statements about my conversation with Nikol Pashinyan and former spokesperson of the Prime Minister (current Ambassador of Armenia to Kyiv) Vladimir Karapetyan. This is what blogger Alexander Lapshin wrote on his Facebook page, adding the following:

“Based on what I understood from the translation of Nairi’s article in Armenian, I am mentioned in the sense that I allegedly discussed the plan for the transfer of Artsakh with Nikol Pashinyan and Vladimir Karapetyan and that Karapetyan had allegedly said that “it’s fine, if a few thousand Armenians die”, and that if I don’t stop criticizing Azerbaijan, it would be better, if I don’t visit Armenia. If I don’t understand the essence of the text too well, I apologize, it’s the shortcoming of Google Translate.

In the spring of 2019, Nairi Hokhikyan called me on the phone telling me there was going to be an economic forum in Gavar on one of those days and that I was invited as a guest speaker. He said Prime Minister Pashinyan will be there and I will have the chance to meet him. I agreed. Moreover, when I was in prison in Belarus (before being extradited to Baku), Pashinyan and Edmon Marukyan had organized a demonstration in front of the Embassy of Belarus in Yerevan with the demand for my release. This was my opportunity to thank those people for their support during the tragic days of my imprisonment.

After the forum, I met Nikol Pashinyan, Vladimir Karapetyan and Nairi Hokhikyan at a banquet in Gavar. There were other people who were most probably the Prime Minister’s bodyguards. During the meeting, I told Nikol Pashinyan about what had happened to me in Azerbaijan due to my visit to Artsakh and the claim against the Aliyev regime. On May 20, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights declared Azerbaijan guilty of my unlawful arrest, tortures, humiliation and assassination attempt. Nikol expressed his compassion and said I could contact him, if he could help me with anything. Vladimir Karapetyan was standing near him, and during the talk, he said Armenia is in a difficult period and is under pressure, the mutual concessions in Artsakh are inevitable in order to get out of the blockade and economic crisis. He also said Armenia needs to lead negotiations with its neighbors in order to get out of the blockade and crisis. He also said the situation may change in the years to come and I should follow what is happening in the region in order to be in the trend.

Afterwards, Sputnik Armenia wrote about my meeting with the Prime Minister. In other words, this was an absolutely open and public event, not a secret. That’s it.

Nothing else happened. It’s hard for me to comment on the rest of the statements in Nairi Hokhikyan’s article since I didn’t have the conversations. I have never heard the cited words “thousands of Armenians killed”, and neither Nikol Pashinyan nor Vladimir Karapetyan declared this during my meeting with them. Nobody said I shouldn’t come to Armenia if I don’t stop criticizing Azerbaijan. On the contrary, as I had said earlier, Pashinyan told me I could address him, if he could help me in any way. Frankly, who am I for the head of state to discuss “thousands of Armenians killed” with a travel blogger?

After the war in the fall of 2020, it’s obvious that we were all (as well as me) were asking ourselves if the loss of Artsakh was previously planned. Of course, I was asking myself if this was what the head of state meant when he was talking about the need to overcome the crisis in Artsakh and the coerced concessions. I don’t know. In any case, a disaster took place, and this is painful for me, just like it is painful for all citizens of Armenia. Everyone understood that the conflict in Artsakh was going to be resolved some way and that some lands would have to be transferred to Baku, but, of course, the transfer at such a price is a tragedy.

Obviously, during the war, I didn’t know and couldn’t have known what was going to happen to Shushi. In his article, Nairi writes that back in October I had told him that “Shushi will be transferred and then the war will end”. There has never been such a conversation between us. I was certain that Armenia would show resistance, and I believed in this until the end, in spite of the fact that many Armenian analysts I knew would say that “everything is already decided” and that “they [the Armenians] will transfer Artsakh”.

I respect Nairi Hokhikyan. He is a talented journalist and great patriot of Armenia. I don’t understand what guided him to publish this article, indicating my name and the conversations that I have never had. Above I wrote about our meeting. I can’t bear responsibility for other statements by Nairi and his evaluative judgments.

P.S.: I don’t know why Nairi voice recorded the talk I had with him after the war in which I regret to say that I am trying to understand what Nikol Pashinyan and Vladimir Karapetyan meant to say during the meeting in Gavar. There is no secret or discrediting statement in my remarks, but it seems to me that this is a dishonest act on Nairi’s part. I’m far from politics in Armenia. I’m a blogger and traveler, and I believe it would be wrong to try to entangle me in political intrigues.”

Captives are sometimes not considered captives but criminals and are kept senselessly. Vladimir Jabarov, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Council, said this during a discussion Thursday, and referring to the process of exchange of Armenian and Azerbaijani captives after the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) war last fall.

He explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the parliamentarians, and the peacekeepers are dealing with the issue of the return of these captives. “The process is constantly going on, but not so fast. As for the minefield maps, some say they do not exist at all. In any case, it is a humanitarian issue and must be resolved,” the Russian lawmaker added.

Russian Armenian political scientist Armen Gasparyan, in his turn, expressed a conviction that the exchange of captives will not be fast. “Besides, it will be a parallel element of bargaining, as we see in the case of exchanging maps of minefields,” added the analyst.

To note, almost immediately after the signing of the capitulation, Armenia, unlike Azerbaijan, returned all Azerbaijani captives.