“I officially promise that the return of prisoners of war will only take three days if I come to power,” the head of the Hayrenik political party and former director of the National Security Service, Artur Vanetsyan, told reporters on Baghramyan Avenue.
The representatives of the opposition went to the president’s residence in order to meet with him to demand that he submit his objections to Nikol Pashinyan’s motion on removing Onik Gasparyan from his position.
When asked why he isn’t supporting the authorities in ensuring the return of prisoners of war now if he promises to be able to resolve that issue in three days, Vanetsyan said that he does not have the authority to do so. According to him, the current authorities are defeated, and they are unable to present their demands to Azerbaijan. It does not have the moral authority to present those demands.
When asked about how the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev announced that there are no more prisoners of war in Azerbaijan, and the people who are currently there were saboteurs, Artur Vanetsyan responded, “Experts have said many times that this is impossible. They have made such statements in international courts. But why do we want a new government? Because they are unable to defend our country’s interests. We aren’t saying that we are fighting for power. I am not fighting for power. I am saying that I am prepared to help solve our country’s problems with my experience. I am not fighting for power. If I were, I wouldn’t have spoken out against the government because I would have been a de facto secondary person of this government.”
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Reporters asked him to open up about the personal ties he is rumored to have and if they are in Azerbaijan. Artur Vanetsyan responded, “How can I have personal ties in Azerbaijan? I tried to use my personal connections all throughout the war. My friends were asking me what I was going to present myself as during meetings because I am not an official representative of Armenia. Meanwhile, the issues I was speaking about were of an interstate nature.”
Reporters asked if he would accept any offer made by Nikol Pashinyan after making this statement for a position to help resolve the issue of prisoners of war, Artur Vanetsyan said, “I cannot be involved in Nikol Pashinyan’s government in any way. We are not in a situation today where I would be able to make decisions on my own. There are many people with me. I am entirely involved in the Homeland Salvation Movement. This large crowd of people is not demanding that we go and become a part of the government. There is a clear demand to change the prime minister and government in order to form a national government.”
During the conversation about his connections, Artur Vanetsyan offered to move the conversation to a domestic level, and he mentioned how those connections were formed. “When a child is born, grows up, goes outside and plays, fights with the children next door, rides a bicycle, forms friendships, one day something happens, and another day something else happens. That child goes to school, college, he talks to girls. He gets into a fight with the children next door and they make up. Friendly and human relationships are formed. I was born and raised in Yerevan, and this is where I live. Let’s go to Bangladesh, Malatia, and Kentron and visit any neighborhood. You will see that people know me and I have connections because I had a bike, I went to school, played with children, fought with them, and made up. These people didn’t have bikes, so they weren’t able to form relationships with people. They fought with everyone, including Georgia, Iran, Russia, and China, but they didn’t fight with Azerbaijan and Turkey because the only ones supporting them as of yesterday were Azerbaijan and Turkey.”
Tatev Harutyunyan
