Alen Simonian on Opposition: 'Even If We Light a Candle with Our 10 Fingers, They Will Still Say, But That Candle Burns Short'

“There is a proposal; Azerbaijan has made its proposal, and Armenia has made its proposal. Every word is up for discussion,” stated National Assembly President Alen Simonian in an interview with Azatutyun.

“There is a proposal; Azerbaijan has made its proposal, and Armenia has made its proposal. We take both proposals, sit down, and start discussing. Every formulation, every word is up for discussion, but we have to start somewhere, right? Something in Azerbaijan’s formulation does not suit us, something in ours, that is the process,” noted the parliamentary spokesperson.

When asked how they view the final resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh status issue, Alen Simonian responded: “To tell you is, conditionally, to interfere in some negotiation process which I am not authorized to do.”

“As the head of the legislative body, I cannot be part of the negotiation process and predetermine anything. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister will respond to that question; if I were to perform that action now, to put it mildly, I would interfere in a process that in this case, I have no right to interfere with,” Simonian emphasized.

In response to Azatutyun’s observation that before entering negotiations, a political decision should have already been made, the NA President replied: “To state about a political decision during Azatutyun’s live broadcast means stating it to Azerbaijan, Russia, France. If I need that, I will do it through that route.”

Addressing the opposition’s demands for the government’s resignation based on the assertion that if they want to resolve the status issue of Artsakh favorably for Armenians, they should state that they never envision Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, Simonian remarked, “They do not want to receive an answer to any question; they have been offered many times to come and discuss it. What interests them, to put it in popular language, is the power struggle because this entire fight is for position and territory, and even if we light a candle with our 10 fingers, they will still say, ‘But that candle burns short,’ and so on. Therefore, I find it meaningless to enter a substantive discussion now, even in this format because they will take some sentence, cut it out, take a phrase, say, ‘But you said this, you said that,’ it has been said a hundred times – you are interested in Artsakh, they are not interested in the issue of Artsakh on Amiryans Street, come and talk to us, we will tell you.”