The incident that took place on the territory of the permanent representation of the Republic of Artsakh in Armenia on June 21 highlighted the fact that the current authorities of Armenia crossed the line of both legal and moral values. This is stated in the June 24 announcement of 4 out of 5 factions of the Artsakh Parliament (Samvel Babayan’s faction did not join).
Let’s remind that on June 21, the special squads of the police broke into the Artsakh representative’s office in Yerevan without a court order and other supporting documents, broke the gates and confiscated the car serving the Artsakh president. At that moment, President Shahramanyan was being questioned as a witness in the Investigative Committee.
Let’s also remind that the forces made an attempt to confiscate the car on June 7, but did not take the car.
After the incident of June 21, Samvel Shahramanyan clarified that after June 7, he talked with the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, he said that he was wrongly reported, and he did not know that the car was serving the President of Artsakh.
Shahramanyan told the journalists that there was no need for such harsh actions, if there was an appropriate decision, he would send the car wherever it was needed. “I want to say from the very beginning that this is not a question of the car: this is simply a question of eliminating the remnants of Artsakh,” said Shahramanyan.
What is this policy of targeting the leadership of Artsakh and the people of Artsakh related to?
Political scientist Manvel Sargsyan noticed that on June 21, Armenia announced the recognition of the Palestinian state.
“The Turkish Foreign Ministry immediately welcomed Armenia’s recognition of Palestine’s independence. A few days ago, Erdogan had a phone conversation with Pashinyan and most likely offered to recognize Palestine. Naturally, there should have been a desire that this should not have anything to do with the Artsakh problem. And actions were needed that would show Aliyev that these problems are different and do not pose a threat to the Azerbaijani side.
Artur Osipyan, leader of the Artsakh Revolutionary Party, believes that the goal of the RA government is to direct the existing hostility towards the Azerbaijanis in the Armenian society against the people of Artsakh. “It is difficult to do, the majority of Armenian society still thinks soberly. All that remains for the RA Government is to connect all Artsakh residents with Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan and focus the hostility on them,” says Osipyan.
Osipyan notices that even though the “Tavush for the Fatherland” movement is led or supported by the people of Tavush, the Church, parliamentary and other opposition parties, they blame only the people of Artsakh.
Experts say that during the demonstrations, the police were particularly cruel to the people of Artsakh. And ruling party MP Hovik Aghazaryan found out using an unknown to science method that most of the participants of the gatherings were not RA citizens, “and not only Artsakh residents, but also people who came specially from Russia”.
However, even such primitive hints affect the public opinion and drive the people of Artsakh to the margins.
“For a long time, the RA authorities have been targeting various groups and individuals of Artsakh people under the guise of democracy, applying repression and discriminatory treatment against them, using the divisive vocabulary of ” people of Armenia- people of Karabakh”. Dangerous and unacceptable are all those actions, statements and speeches that undermine public solidarity and insult the dignity of the Armenians of Artsakh, which are manifested not only through real or fake users widely distributed on social networks, but also from the podium of the RA National Assembly by representatives of the ruling political force,” said in the statement of the National Assembly.
This absurd situation, when forcibly displaced Armenians receive similar treatment in Armenia, surprises even the foreign partners of the RA government. In order to close their eyes, the Government announced the launch of the Housing Security Program for Artsakh citizens, without clarifying that no Artsakh citizen can participate in the program for at least a few months, because there is an incomprehensible condition to take RA citizenship with the whole family. Under this program, the RA government collects money from international donors, while showing that it cares about the people of Artsakh who are under “temporary protection”, and there is no need to discuss their rights in international courts.
However, the absence of a common fund for the collection of those finances and any body dealing with the issues of the Artsakh people suggests that the “temporary protection” is to drive the Artsakh people into a corner and isolate them from international law.
Naira Hayrumyan