Artsakh Parliament Holds Secret Meeting: 'Hraparak'

The newspaper 'Hraparak' reports that Artsakh deputies convened an extraordinary session of the National Assembly on Saturday at the Artsakh representation in Yerevan, marking the first Assembly meeting since the forcible displacement of Artsakh residents. However, no official information has been released regarding the meeting.

All deputies were present at the session, except for the Assembly Chairman Davit Ishkhanyan, who is in Azerbaijani captivity. His duties were taken over by Gagik Bagunts, the Deputy Chairman of the Assembly and a member of Samvel Babayan's party.

The agenda included two items: the swearing-in of two new deputies and the formation of an international commission on the Artsakh issue, which will advocate for Artsakh on international platforms and address return issues. Artsakh deputies are part of this commission, and other members will be included in the future.

Why is there no official information about the National Assembly meeting? Apparently, the Artsakh representatives are reluctant to release a statement due to the opposition from Armenian authorities to maintaining Artsakh's state institutions. Our sources indicate that the suggestion to announce the session was made by several opposition deputies but was not accepted.

It remains unclear why the session was held if it was supposed to remain secret and no one was to know about it. Yesterday, we attempted to obtain a comment from one of the Artsakh deputies, but most were unreachable, and others quickly hung up their phones. Meanwhile, Aram Grigoryan, the head of the 'Free Homeland' - KMD faction, acknowledged the question but stated that he did not wish to comment. Later, he called us back and advised monitoring the statements from the Artsakh information center.