“This reality obliges the President of Artsakh and the National Assembly to appeal to Armenia to recognize the Republic of Artsakh,” says Metakse Hakobyan.
At the March 10 special sitting, the Artsakh Parliament adopted a statement addressing the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and the UN. “The current situation shows once again that the recognition of the right of the people of Artsakh to live safely and to have independent statehood is the only correct, civilized, and unwavering decision.”
After the adoption of the statement and the speech of MP Metakse Hakobyan, the Speaker of the Artsakh National Assembly Artur Tovmasyan said, “I have appealed to all the parliaments of the world and translated the appeal into several languages- not only into Armenian, Russian, English, French, but also into Persian and Turkish. I sent a letter to recognize the Republic of Artsakh because there is no other way out.” He said that Artsakh has repeatedly appealed to Armenia to recognize Artsakh’s independence.
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“Even at the level at which France has recognized Artsakh, the upper and lower chambers. We have even suggested that at least the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations put the issue of Artsakh recognition on the agenda with a positive conclusion. Politically and morally, it was right to recognize the independence of Artsakh during the war. We have missed the issue of recognition several times. For example, before Bishkek in 1994, in 2003, when Aliyev senior was replaced by Aliyev junior, who said that we were moving the negotiation process to zero, in 2014 during the terrorist attacks. At that time, the negotiations were deadlocked again, in 2016 during the four-day war and in 2020. How happy we would feel if not only Armenia recognized Artsakh! When the resolution on the recognition of Artsakh passed in the lower and upper chambers of the French parliament, we smiled for the first time. Imagine that recognition on September 26, 2020. That is the dream of all of us.”
Earlier, Metakse Hakobyan mentioned in her speech, “The situation in which we, the Armenians of Artsakh, find ourselves, is nothing but a humanitarian catastrophe, and the behavior of the Azerbaijanis is a crime against humanity. At the moment, making statements alone is not enough. The bitter experience of our 44 days is proof that the world is silent and does not want to see the reality. There are many precedents for preventing a humanitarian catastrophe. After the statement of November 9, 2020, the Azerbaijani side did not uphold any point of the statement and continued to carry out terrorist acts against the peaceful population of Artsakh, and as it is mentioned in the statement, this warning has not only taken place over the last few days. It is constant. The settlements of Artsakh have been targeted from time to time for more than a year. And in these last days, obstructing and not allowing the repair works of the only gas pipeline to find out what the consequences are is nothing but a humanitarian catastrophe.”
She noted that there are many precedents for preventing a humanitarian catastrophe and gave examples. “The recognition of Kosovo by the United States, the recognition of the republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, as well as Donetsk and Luhansk by Russia. Therefore, this reality obliges both the National Assembly of the Republic of Artsakh and the President of Artsakh to appeal to the Republic of Armenia, as well as to the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries, to recognize the Republic of Artsakh for the sake of the security and right to life of the people living here.”
Nelly BABAYAN
