September 19 Not Declared Genocide Day; Proposal Failed Due to Absence of MPs

The newspaper "ZHoghovurd" reports that Samvel Babayan's "United Homeland" party has thwarted the initiative to declare September 19 as a Genocide Day in response to Azerbaijan's aggression against Artsakh and the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh Armenians.

According to "ZHoghovurd," on the eve of the anniversary of the Artsakh War, on September 18, Artsakh MPs attempted to convene a session of the Artsakh National Assembly, with the sole agenda item being the declaration of September 19 as a day of genocide against Artsakh Armenians. However, the parliamentary representatives of Samvel Babayan's "United Homeland" party did not attend the session, failing to secure a quorum, which resulted in the initiative being blocked.

In an interview with "ZHoghovurd," Artsakh MP Davit Galstyan confirmed the report, stating, "It is unclear why the MPs from that faction did not show up for the session; the reasons are unknown, and notably, one of their MPs is a co-author of the proposal. Only Gagik Bagunts, the Vice President of the Assembly from the 'United Homeland' party, was present to conduct the meeting, but 17 MPs were not gathered, leading to no quorum."

Member of the "United Homeland" faction, Marsel Petrosyan, also commented in an interview with the newspaper, saying, "The Artsakh National Assembly currently has 32 MPs, and our faction has 8 members. With 17 MPs present, they could have ensured a quorum. Where were the other representatives? Of course, one can blame everything on 'United Homeland'... Let them gather and ensure a quorum with 17 representatives. I wasn’t even aware that a session was going to take place; maybe they called, but I didn’t notice," he said.