Your trusted source

Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan has denounced the Armenian parliament speaker's recent remarks on the Artsakh people and its leadership, according to a statement issued by the Artsakh Information Center.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Alen Simonyan lambasted Artsakh's ethnic Armenian population for fleeing the country following Azerbaijan’s large-scale military offensive in September 2023. He claimed that Artsakh's army did not put up strong resistance against Azerbaijani troops. 

“You got out of there because it wasn’t safe, though you could have stayed and fought till the end,” Simonyan said. “But you left.”

"Alen Simonyan sought to belittle the heroic struggle of the Artsakh people during more than nine months of blockade and the large-scale hostilities that followed," the Artsakh Information Center said.

"Samvel Shahramanyan finds it necessary to once again emphasize that the people of Artsakh did everything possible to continue living on their historical homeland. However, the struggle extends beyond the battlefield, spanning political and diplomatic arenas where Alen Simonyan has frequently altered his views and positions on key issues concerning Artsakh and Armenia, based on political and other considerations.

"The Artsakh authorities spared no effort to ensure that the servicemen defending the homeland did not feel abandoned and were able to safely leave their positions or the blockade once hostilities ceased. The president of the Artsakh Republic demands that Armenian National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan, publicly apologize to the displaced people of Artsakh and refrain from making statements that undermine the struggle and defense of the homeland," reads the statement.

In response to the widespread backlash against Simonyan’s statement, Shahramanyan urged the Armenian speaker to focus on addressing the critical issues facing the Artsakh Armenians, rather than making "dangerous and divisive statements".