Why Do You Call It Artsakh? I Want to Understand, I’m Curious: Simonyan

“Why do you call it Artsakh? I want to understand, I’m curious: In that case, why do you feel bad when someone gives Azerbaijani names to certain territories of Armenia, for instance, when someone calls Lake Sevan something else? Why do you feel bad?” This statement was made by the President of the National Assembly, Alan Simonyan, during a press briefing.

In response to a remark suggesting that Simonyan himself used to refer to it as Artsakh, he acknowledged, “I was wrong.”

“I want to understand: why don’t you use the same constitutional name for Nagorno-Karabakh? It was the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, why not use that? Because all of you are politicized and are busy presenting claims. Therefore, I ask you not to feel bad if someone in another country refers to Yerevan as Erivan or calls Lake Sevan something else. Don’t raise a fuss, don’t be surprised,” he noted.

For more details, see the video.