President Armen Sarkissian received a group of Hadrut residents who, deprived of their homes due to the Azerbaijani-Turkish military aggression against Artsakh, currently found refuge in Armenia.
“We all have pain, but it is incomparable with what you, your families and relatives, are experiencing,” said the President. “Every Armenian in the world has a great burden, but that, of course, is not comparable to yours. We must do our best so that all of us, from Armenia to Artsakh can rise and stand up after falling, and tread a difficult path, not to become defeated people, state and nation. These are my words of consolation, since I have no other words right now. That is why it is essential that we were united as a nation and a state. We must try hard to do our best.
To blame each other, and argue … This will take us nowhere but to great misfortune. Let us try to rise and help each other. ”
The people of Hadrut, hosted at the Presidential Palace, said that they recently applied to international organizations and embassies with their concerns and disagreements over what had happened. They informed that their demands were summarized in four main points: to examine the issue of de-occupation of Hadrut, exert every effort to include the issue of Hadrut and all other related matters in the negotiating agenda of the OSCE Minsk Group, transfer the issue of IDPs (internally displaced persons) from Hadrut, as well as the preservation of historical and cultural monuments of Hadrut to the legal level.
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Noting that he has not been related to the ceasefire document, President Sarkissian said: “It hurts me because my diplomatic and negotiating experience of so many years has not been used.” The President of the Republic said that one of the first steps should be “to return the Karabakh issue to the negotiation stage – the OSCE Minsk Group.” Ultimately, the final status of Nagorno-Karabakh will be determined by the OSCE Minsk Group. We must invest all our potential, both political and diplomatic, to return the issue to the Minsk Group. This may be the mechanism that should work for the preservation of historical and cultural heritage. The platforms could be the OSCE Minsk Group, UNESCO or other international bodies.”
To the question of the people from Hadrut what can they do to promote it, President Sarkissian answered. “You must make your voice heard, in no case should your voice be lost. You will not be able to negotiate, but your voice must be. You have to be organized, and your problems and your demand must be factual. I’m with you.”
Noting that there are huge humanitarian problems today, the President considered important to solve them through various programs.
The Office to the President of the Republic of Armenia