Hearing on Shahramanyan's Lawsuit Regarding 'Dissolution of the Republic of Artsakh' Phrase Concludes

The civil court of Yerevan today concluded the hearing of the lawsuit filed by Samvel Shahramanyan against Njdeh Hovsepyan and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports (MoESCS). The court has retreated to the deliberation room to make a decision.

Samvel Shahramanyan had approached the court arguing that the sentence in the 9th-grade history textbook stating, 'The President of Artsakh signed a decree on the dissolution of Artsakh' is false, defamatory, and insulting.

Njdeh Hovsepyan, a co-author of the textbook and historian, reminds that the sentence quotes a statement from the Artsakh information headquarters. 'According to their logic, if I wrote about it, it is defamation, but if Shahramanyan mentions it, politicians of the region, and officials from Artsakh do not spread falsifications. They present it as if there is only one sentence in the textbook regarding this matter and that’s it. However, that is not the case. What is written is a fact, not an interpretation. In the end, if everything were written according to one’s wishes, what would result? Would that be a textbook, a memoir, or an encyclopedia?' he stated.

According to Hovsepyan, 'From the applicant’s speech, I understood that they merely want the text to be written with the words and ideas they prefer. This is already a historiographical dispute, not an object of litigation. This is an attempt at political pressure, which could set an example that no one dares to write about these issues. And if someone gets confused and writes, it should be written either according to their preferences or be evaded so thoroughly that it does not appear in court.'