MP Hrachya Hakobyan from the Civil Contract faction stated that the people of Artsakh could have negotiated with the Azerbaijanis, but “not at the moment when Artsakh’s dissolution was being signed in Yevlakh.”
Responding to a journalist’s remark that it was Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan who declared in Prague that Artsakh was part of Azerbaijan, Hakobyan replied: “That was not handing over Artsakh,” as reported by Panorama.am .
The MP insisted that the residents of Artsakh left voluntarily, adding: “At the time, we were saying**, “**don’t leave Artsakh”. They said: we’re not being allowed to enter Armenia. Now they’re here and saying: you won’t let us return to Artsakh… We were telling them: go and negotiate with the Azerbaijanis, but not to the point of signing the dissolution document in Yevlakh.”
When a journalist noted that no such document had been signed in Yevlakh, Hakobyan asked: “Then where was it signed?” and urged the reporter to stand back from him.
The journalists responded that the document had been signed in Artsakh and that Prime Minister Pashinyan had been informed of it.
“Pashinyan didn’t propose any clauses—they decided on their own to sign it,” Hakobyan said.
Challenged with the suggestion that Pashinyan was giving away a route through Meghri in exchange for illusory peace, Hakobyan replied: “Do you really think we gave away a road that will be under Armenian jurisdiction?”
He also dismissed concerns that 20,000 Azerbaijanis would move to Syunik via the new road.
Azerbaijan launched a large-scale attack on Artsakh on September 19, 2023, subjecting the entire region to intense shelling. The following day, on September 20, the Artsakh authorities accepted the Russian peacekeeping mission’s proposal for a ceasefire and agreed to Baku’s terms—disarmament of the Defense Army and the dissolution of the Republic of Artsakh. Starting on September 24, a mass forced displacement of Artsakh Armenians began, with over 100,000 people fleeing to Armenia. Some reports suggest only about 20 Armenians remained in Artsakh. On September 28, President Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree to dissolve the Republic, effective January 1, 2024.
