Current Authorities of Armenia Have Severed All Institutional Ties with Artsakh: Artsakh Parliament Member

According to Davit Galstyan, the head of the "Justice" faction in the Artsakh Republic Parliament, the President of Azerbaijan has long ago formulated his latest "demands." This was reported by the "Fact" newspaper.

The demands concern the "dissolution of the Artsakh state institutions and resignations of officials." However, the issue, according to Galstyan, is different. "We have repeatedly stated that the current authorities of Armenia have severed all their institutional ties with Artsakh. Today, these ties only exist based on personal relations between Arayik Harutyunyan and Nikol Pashinyan, and there are no institutional relations. When we talked about the necessity of holding inter-parliamentary sessions after the war, it became evident that no officials from Artsakh were coming to Armenia due to Aliyev's demands. This clearly indicated that Aliyev had long formulated the aforementioned demands," Galstyan stated.

He emphasized that Aliyev gradually brought Pashinyan to a situation where the latter had to declare the exact opposite of what he stated on August 5, 2019, in Stepanakert Square. When Nikol Pashinyan declared that "Artsakh is Armenia, and that's it," he sparked a war.

Galstyan noted that Aliyev's current demand is for Pashinyan to announce that "Artsakh is Azerbaijan." Consequently, Pashinyan officially recognized "86,600 square kilometers of Azerbaijan," according to Galstyan, stressing that it was after this announcement that Aliyev was granted the opportunity to speak in such terms.

"When Pashinyan complied with Aliyev's demand and recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, it is logical that Aliyev would subsequently declare that 'the authorities operating in Artsakh, including the Parliament, are not legitimate,' and so on. However, there is an important aspect here: when Aliyev talks about the institutions of Nagorno-Karabakh—Parliament, President, or government—he indirectly recognizes these institutions. If we have a pro-Armenian thinking power both in Armenia and Artsakh, we can clearly present to the international community that, yes, Artsakh is a viable state with all its governmental institutions. Unfortunately, however, the defeated authorities are unable to benefit correctly from such blunders and false statements from Aliyev, as their goal is different," Galstyan concluded, emphasizing that their goal is not to advance the independence and self-determination rights of Artsakh.