Speaker of the National Assembly of Artsakh, Ashot Danielyan, condemned Azerbaijani presidential adviser Hikmet Hajiyev for making what he called a “cynical attempt” to distort reality in an interview with Germany’s Berliner Zeitung, where Hajiyev claimed Armenians left Nagorno-Karabakh voluntarily and that Azerbaijan was ready to reintegrate them.
Danielyan emphasized that the people of Artsakh never willingly abandoned their ancestral homeland.
“This claim not only grossly distorts reality, but also cynically tries to justify a state-level crime and convince the international community of its legitimacy.
The undeniable truth is that the people of Artsakh never left their millennia-old homeland voluntarily. The ten-month brutal blockade and its catastrophic effects, followed by Azerbaijan’s September 19, 2023, military assault, forced people to choose between abandoning their homes or facing physical extermination. This was Azerbaijan’s version of ‘reintegration’—subjugation without rights, security, or survival guarantees.
This criminal conduct continues. Twenty-three Armenians, including the former political and military leadership of Artsakh, are still held hostage in Azerbaijani prisons, subjected to sham trials. It’s a manifestation of a vengeance-driven dictatorship, met with silence and inaction from the international community. This silence is complicit and enables ongoing lawlessness. When war crimes go unpunished, they become political tools.
Today, thousands of Artsakh Armenians live as refugees, stripped of everything—except their memory and dignity. History is cleansed through truth, not propaganda. The voice of Artsakh Armenians will not be silenced by Hajiyev or any official using lies and manipulation,” the statement reads.
In his interview, Hikmet Hajiyev also said the OSCE Minsk Group should be “archived” as a diplomatic failure and reiterated Baku’s demand that Armenia change its Constitution as a prerequisite for peace.
