Category: 2022

Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan issued a congratulatory message on Republic Day celebrated on May 28. His full message is below.

“I congratulate all our compatriots in Armenia, Artsakh, and Spyurk for whom freedom and independence of our Fatherland, the undying memory of our courageous ancestors, who gave their lives for our independent statehood, are above everything else.

I congratulate all those who cherish our national spiritual and cultural values, our language and history, all those who even today, more than one hundred years after the glorious May victories achieved on the battlefields, are ready to protect these values and pass them on to new generations.

On this day in May of 1918, the devoted sons of the Armenian nation at the highest level of the national awareness and historic responsibility, through their selfless and dedicated courage had attained the right to live free and independent in their Homeland.

Eternal glory to all Armenian soldiers, military commanders, servicemen, representatives of the clergy and all those devotees, who led and brought to brilliant victories in May battles, who decided to live with dignity and not submit to the aliens. We bow to the memory of our heroic ancestors.

For our nation, which had appeared on the brink of despair and extinction, the May victories became a new opportunity to live, to create and to achieve pan-national goals.

Painfully, today our nation faces the same dilemma: to defend with our lives our own land, our homes under the enemy’s daily threat, our spiritual and cultural heritage under the threat of demolishment and desecration, our children’s future, or to kneel before our enemy, trusting in its and its Armenian cronies false and dangerous assurances about opening an era of peace?

The worthy and dignified sons and daughters of our nations have made their choice, and I wish them every success in their relentless mission to fight against the internal and external enemies.

Eternal glory to the sons of our nation who created May 28!

Long live all devotees of our Fatherland who through new victories will create the powerful, dignified, free, and independent Fatherland of tomorrow!”

Artsakh’s President Arayik Harutyunyan called on the Armenian law enforcement authorities to release public activist and opposition politician Avetik Chalabyan.

Chalabyan was arrested on May 12 for allegedly trying to pay students of the Armenian National Agrarian University to participate in ongoing anti-government protests in Yerevan. He has denied the charges as politically motivated.

He is also a co-founder of Arar Foundation, a charity supporting the Armenian army as well as border villages in Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

In a statement on Friday, the Artsakh leader highlighted that Chalabyan is a friend of Artsakh, adding a number of important programs are being implemented at his initiative.

“On behalf of the Artsakh people and on my own behalf, I ask the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia to reconsider the measure of restraint as well as to conduct a full, objective and comprehensive investigation,” Harutyunyan said.

Speaker of the Artsakh National Assembly Artur Tovmasyan and ten MPs issued a similar call. The lawmakers’ statement posted on social media noted that Chalabyan was actively involved in numerous programs to restore Artsakh.

“We express concern over Avetik Chalabyan’s arrest and call for his release from custody,” the statement reads.

The Foreign Ministry of Armenia has responded the statements of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made on Friday. Below is the full statement released by the ministry on Saturday.

“The remarks of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev delivered on May 27 once again demonstrate the deconstructivism, the arbitrary, false interpretation of the agreements, and the continuation of aggressive and warmongering policy by the Azerbaijani side.

The aspirations towards the sovereign territory of the neighbouring country and standing from the position of use of force to achieve these goals are nothing but a contempt for the norms of international law, which seriously question the sincerity of Azerbaijan’s intentions to achieve peace in the region.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia considers it necessary to reiterate its principled position, namely that the negotiations on normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be held on the basis of proposals of both sides, which should address the whole agenda of the issues, including the final settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

With its speculations, the Azerbaijani side attempts to present the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as a territorial dispute while it is about the realization of the rights of the Armenians of Artsakh and the exclusion of the threat of ethnic cleansing.

In this regard, we remind that the international mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship received in 1995 to support the comprehensive settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, does exist.

We call on the leadership of Azerbaijan not to disrupt the discussions conducted in the existing formats with warmongering, expansionist rhetoric.

At the same time, we draw the attention of the international community to the statements made by official Baku, and expect the unequivocal attitude of our international partners, which will make it possible to achieve stability and peace in the South Caucasus.”

The process and outcomes of delimitation and demarcation of the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan cannot affect the current and future status of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), Artsakh’s State Minister Artak Beglaryan said on Friday, responding to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s remarks.

“The process and results of delimitation and demarcation with the Republic of Armenia cannot affect the current and future status of Artsakh (the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic),” he said in a Telegram post.

“In the end, the Karabakh conflict is not a conflict with the Republic of Armenia, but with the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.”

The minister stresses the Karabakh conflict has not been resolved, which the whole agrees to, regardless of “certain differences in interests”.

“If Azerbaijan wants to turn the page of the conflict and clarify the status of Artsakh, it can carry out a process of delimitation and demarcation also with the Artsakh Republic, returning the occupied territories and recognizing its independence,” Beglaryan said.

The basic principle of the conflict settlement is the full realization of peoples’ right to self-determination, he underscored.

“Only by passing this test will the international community prove that, contrary to Aliyev’s claims, there is international law which the right of peoples to self-determination is a key part of,” the minister said.

Another important principle of international law is non-use of force or threat of force, which has also been blatantly violated and ignored by Azerbaijan, Beglaryan added.

“Aliyev again threatened with new precedents of the use of force, which is a clear signal to the international community to take preventive and punitive measures. Encouraging or ignoring deviant behavior leads to international disasters, becoming an international practice and a part of customary law,” he said.

Opposition protesters held a motorcade rally in Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city, on Saturday.

One of its participants, Karapet Poghosyan, shared a video of the car protest on his Facebook page.

An opposition rally is planned to be held in Yerevan’s France Square on Saturday evening.

Former Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian will not participate in the parliamentary inquiry into the 2020 war in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), he said in a statement shared by the media on Saturday.

Earlier, Andranik Kocharyan, the chair of the parliament’s Standing Committee on Defense and Security, said Oskanian had been invited to join the ad hoc commission investigating the circumstances of the 44-day war.

Oskanian says he has not yet received a written invitation from the commission but has decided not to participate in its work, arguing that it cannot be objective.

The ex-minister believes the war could have been averted through good diplomacy.

“The same holds true for the current situation. Through skillful diplomacy, without risking renewed war and with the support of the international community, we can avoid the recognition of Artsakh within the borders of the former NKAO as a part of Azerbaijan, the handover of any sovereign Armenian territory to Azerbaijan and the opening of a transport corridor in Syunik, contrary to the pressure exerted by Turkey and Azerbaijan,” Oskanian said.