Author: Ophelia Vardapetian

The Office of Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan responded on Friday to the lies voiced by Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev at the recent press conference. According to Sargsyan, Aliyev made such ridiculous “serious revelations” that it would be a waste of time and completely pointless to refer to them one by one.

“However, it should be noted that he is not far behind his current Armenian counterpart in terms of unscrupulous and irresponsible lying. It is quite clear why he is doing this now: he is trying to support his partner in a difficult moment. Probably both of them have severally suffered from the complex of a loser at different times,” the statement said. 

In Sargsyan’s words, far from the army and with no knowledge or experience in military affairs like his incumbent Armenian counterpart, Aliyev finds himself in ridiculous situations with contradictory statements and lies.

“He recently announced that Karvachar and Lachin would never have been handed over under Serzh Sargsyan’s rule, while today he states that in 2016 Serzh Sargsyan asked to give him two weeks to withdraw the troops from the occupied territories. This could have happened only in Aliyev’s dream. Has anyone ever wondered why Aliyev did not reveal that “request” to his audience on various occasions and did not boast as it is obvious that he could not help giving in to the temptation?

How come there was not a single mention of it the St. Petersburg document, which was negotiated in 2016. Was it not the same Aliyev who made a heartbreaking statement at a cabinet meeting in 2016: “Behind closed doors we are being urged to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh: Azerbaijan will never take such a step.”

Irresponsibility and lies have never benefited anyone in the long run neither in politics, nor in war, nor in any other case. Instead, they can do as much harm as one can imagine,” said the president.

“He will always be hysterical. He will always lie, threaten and manipulate,” Armenia’s former Ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan said on his Telegram channel, referring to the remarks of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during a rally at Yerevan’s Republic Square on Thursday.

The ex-diplomat stated that Pashinyan behaved in that way while he was a reporter, at the National Assembly sessions and rallies.

“He will shout even in the grave. And it is only up to us whether we will find ourselves in the same grave with him or will find a way to leave him there alone,” Minasyan wrote.   

Former Ambassador of Armenia to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan on Wednesday touched upon the summit of the countries of the anti-Turkey alliance, including Greece, Cyprus, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE, held in the Greek capital of Athens on February 11, highlighting that Armenia’s foreign minister did not attend it.

“Turkish expansionism and the fight against it were discussed in Athens. The Turkish Foreign Ministry called the summit ‘hostile’,” Minasyan wrote on Telegram, stating that Armenia’s absence from the summit testifies to the loss of its natural allies, who “no longer consider that Yerevan either deserves to participate in the summit or is a competent partner in this matter.”

“It is not ruled out that Greece nevertheless invited Armenia [to the meeting], but Yerevan turned down the proposal not to anger Ankara,” the ex-envoy said.

According to him, as a result, Armenia has become an “object of international relations”, which is talked about and its fate is decided without involving the country in the decision-making process.

“[PM] Nikol Pashinyan is no longer capable of pursuing foreign policy. He has only one thing left to do – to sit still, not to interfere [in the processes], and, of course, lick other people’s boots, which he used to blame others for,” Minasyan added.  

Arsen Ghazaryan, the uncle of an Armenian soldier who went missing during the recent Artsakh war, is returning to Yerevan from Stepanakert after search efforts have yielded no results.

“During this period, we realized that this process is proceeding very slowly and is being protracted. They are playing games again. Our patience is overflowing. We have decided that we have nothing else to do in Stepanakert and in the morning we are heading to Yerevan,” he said in a Facebook live late on Tuesday.

The uncle said all parents of missing soldiers who are taking part in the search operations in Artsakh will come to Yerevan, calling on all relatives of missing or killed soldiers to join them in raising their voice against the authorities’ mishandling of the issue.

“This has to stop. They [Azerbaijanis] announced that they would return 21 prisoners of war to Armenia, but only 5 prisoners have repatriated. If it continues like this, this process will take several years,” Ghazaryan said, referring to the return of five Armenian POWs from Azerbaijani captivity late on Tuesday.

“Listen, gentlemen, we cannot wait for years until you get back 5 prisoners each time. So if you do not have a clear idea of what it means to be in captivity, place your children next to ours, sit down and wait for their return with us. How long are you going to stall for time? What do you want?” the angry man said, again urging all relatives of missing servicemen to join their efforts.

Also, he accused the authorities of starting the search operations for war casualties in the Azerbaijani-held territories of Artsakh very late.