Metakse Hakobyan, the secretary of the “Justice” Faction of the Artsakh National Assembly, who was hosted on the “Aravot” “Confrontation” (“Areresum”) program, without mentioning his name, referred to the claims of the leader of the United Homeland Party, Samvel Babayan, that Azerbaijan was ready to grant autonomy to Artsakh.
Remember that in the interview given to the Public Television of Armenia on September 26, Samvel Babayan made a claim that contradicts Ilham Aliyev’s repeated public statements regarding the denial of Artsakh as a territorial organizational unit. “Therefore, I explained that direct negotiations are needed without mediation or a mediator. Azerbaijan considers itself victorious. But Azerbaijan is defeated because neither Central Asia, Russia, nor Persia will accept this Turkey-Azerbaijan tandem; it knows the time will come; we will see.
The biggest mistake was not giving autonomy to Karabakh, which would be a link for Armenian-Azerbaijani reconciliation, trade, economic and other contacts. I explained, and they accepted it. Then the toasts became sweeter; these young people came, and they said: we will fight until the end, Samvel Babayan said, confirming that he negotiated autonomy with the Azerbaijani side through mediation; we could create an autonomous republic on 4400 territories, have our guards, people didn’t want it.”
“It is said that the Azerbaijani side made proposals and conveyed something to someone from Artsakh. This is a simple report about the crime, confessed about being an agent,” said Metakse Hakobyan. She also referred to the planned meeting between representatives of Azerbaijan and Artsakh in Sofia.
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Remember that during the question-and-answer session with the government, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan claimed that the RA authorities tried to lower the bar regarding the status of Artsakh in agreement with the Nagorno-Karabakh partners.
“But what happened instead? We lowered it, and NK raised it. Nagorno-Karabakh raised the bar with your encouragement, dear opposition. If our common agreement and understanding were kept in NK, it would not have happened like that. We said that the international community would provide consolidation. Yes, the international community proposed a meeting in Sofia within the framework of the international mechanism to NK, but why didn’t they go? Because NK was forbidden to go. Who forbade it? No one knows that.”
“I’ll tell you the truth; imagine what that nonsense was like… how serious they took it. And in many cases, our compatriots also thought that Artsakh rejected any meeting. We were in a position, also seeing the politics from here, that we understood that yes, maybe there is no option left but to sit face to face, even if we have to, without any intermediary, realizing what was expected and realizing that, that we are simply alone. What happened? With different sources, not written on paper, but verbal words were transmitted, of course, not through the person who speaks about it (the reference was obviously about Samvel Babayan again: A.I.). And unlike that frivolous word of mouth, the Artsakh side sat down, had serious discussions, made decisions, conveyed its determination, and then silence. Do you understand that there was no process, there was no end? In other words, everything was done for the outside, but in reality, there was none.”
Meanwhile, Nikol Pashinyan’s question left undefined: “They did not allow Nagorno-Karabakh to go. Who forbade it? No one knows that,” clarified Aram Sargsyan, the chairman of the “Hanrapetutyun” party, who has regular meetings with the prime minister as part of the extra-parliamentary forces, who assured in an interview to “A1+” that before the resignation of the former president of Artsakh, Araik Harutyunyan, he had talked with him for three nights. He claimed that Araik Harutyunyan wanted to go to Sofia to negotiate.
“I can say for sure that he bought the ticket to go to Sofia; they can check it. He was put under tremendous pressure by the former authorities of NK and RA and the people. They considered that the Russian troops were protecting them. And the Russian contingent said, if you leave, we will wash our hands.”
“He is telling a lie,” retorted the Artsakh NA “Justice” faction secretary. And such a comment is more than funny. It could have been done by a person who has absolutely no connection and does not know what kind of situation Artsakh was in and what steps it was ready to take for the sake of it so that we would not have any more victims and be able to prolong our life there.”
The entire conversation is in the video.
Anna ISRAYELIAN
