This year an unofficial delegation from Armenia will attend. Tensions continue with Azerbaijan, which claims majority-Armenian territory. Baku believes that Yerevan still has territorial claims. According to the Armenians, the Brussels agreements have not established the status of the region.
Moscow () – In Stepanakert, the Armenian city of Nagorno-Karabakh, solemn festivities were held to commemorate the region’s Independence Day. For the first time, however, no official delegation from Yerevan attended the disputed territory with Azerbaijan, although representatives of the country’s political leadership were not lacking.
Last year, the first after the 44-day war with Baku, Armenia refrained from sending official representatives to Nagorno-Karabakh; however, a large parliamentary delegation from the National Assembly, led by Vice President Ruben Rubinyan, was present in Stepanakert. Parliament did not send an official representation this year, but the three represented party groups sent their own delegation.
Two deputies from the “Civil Settlement” majority group, Lilit Stepanyan and Rustam Bakoyan, arrived in Karabakh on September 2 and declared that they were attending on behalf of the entire parliamentary group: “Everyone wanted to come, but it was not possible, so we are proud to be in Artsakh,” using the region’s Armenian name. Bakoyan also attributed the absence of the official Assembly delegation to Speaker Alena Simonyan, who refused to explain to reporters.
Present and past leaders of the Armenian Karabakh were present at the independence celebrations, such as President Araik Arutjunyan, Speaker of the local Parliament Artur Tovmasyan, and former President Bakoyan Sajakyan. The deputies from Yerevan were only greeted as “guests of the Republic of Armenia”.
The Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pašinyan, sent a congratulatory message on the 31st anniversary of Nagorno-Karabakh’s proclamation of independence, recalling that “all the statements about the non-existence of Artsakh as a territorial unit and about the already defined solution of the problems on the composition of this territory, are completely out of place, until the security and defense of the rights of Armenian citizens are guaranteed, and only then can we talk about the definitive status of Nagorno-Karabakh”.
Strong expressions of criticism of the Stepanakert demonstrations came from Baku, especially after the visit of the secretary of the Yerevan Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, which took place two days after Independence Day. The Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has published a note in which it considers that this visit is “another provocation by Armenia”, which “harms efforts to normalize relations between the two states”.
According to the Azeris, these provocations have been made “consciously” after the official meeting of the presidents of the two countries in Brussels, to once again question the agreements reached. All this “clearly demonstrates the lack of sincerity of the Armenian counterpart in the process of resolving the conflict”, and that there are still territorial claims by Yerevan, to which “Baku will give the corresponding answers”.
For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Yerevan responded to Azerbaijan’s protests, which it considers “speculation about the Brussels agreements, which in no way have closed the definition of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.” Everything suggests that the dispute on this issue will not end soon.
Add Comment