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The Parliament debated the issue – the RA NA Statement related to the statement of the Parliament of Azerbaijan on November 8, 2022 authored by the Armenia Faction, at the RA NA extraordinary sitting.

Ideas were exchanged regarding the draft. The NA deputies expressed their point of views.

Hripsime Grigoryan referred to the actions of the RA Government, which it does based on the interests of the state and the people. “First of all, we must realize our possibilities and act taking into account the existing geopolitical realities,” she said.

According to Gegham Nazaryan, the ruling majority refuses to jointly accept an important text for strange reasons, the necessity of which everyone knows internally and considers it correct. “Why should we give up the expression “The Republic of Artsakh,” the right to self- determination,” the deputy asked a question.

Hovik Aghazaryan also expressed his opinion that the people of Artsakh fought against Azerbaijan from the beginning, who defended their rights, and many Armenians went and defended their brothers, while Armenia did not fight against Azerbaijan. In this context, the deputy considered the signing of the ceasefire document by Armenia as a party to the first Artsakh war in 1994 wrong. “Now we learn from that mistake and separate two issues: we separate Armenia-Azerbaijan relations from the issues of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh,” he said.

Hayk Mamijanyan responded to some opinions expressed by the government deputies the other day and refuted them. At the end of the speech, the deputy urged the government colleagues not to refer to the draft statement in case of a new military aggression by Azerbaijan.

According to Sergey Bagratyan, the meaning of the debate is not to blame each other, but to reach the common goal, but not everyone follows this rule. “We seem to reduce the effectiveness of our debate when we start discussing historical excursions too much,” the deputy noted, referring to the opinions expressed by some colleagues.

According to Gegham Manukyan, the power proposed the Armenia Faction to remove from the NA draft statement submitted by the Armenia Faction such provisions that were once condemned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.

Emphasizing the statement under debate, Tadevos Avetisyan noted that it is part of the program presented by the Government. The deputy referred to the budgetary support given to Artsakh and the protection of the rights of the people of Artsakh.

Shirak Torosyan urged to jointly strengthen our state. According to the deputy, the parliament is not the platform where it is necessary to discuss who is ready to compromise and who is patriotic. “The Republic of Armenia is fighting and will fight to protect its territorial integrity and all the rights of the people of Artsakh,” Shirak Torosyan underlined.

Artsvik Minasyan spoke about the importance of the adoption of the draft. In the MP’s opinion, it is the response to the anti-Armenian policy of Azerbaijan.

“We tried to help with as few interventions as possible to make your text stronger and point out the parts that we think should be the general position of Armenia,” Maria Karapetyan noted and added that unfortunately, that common denominator was not found. The deputy suggested the opposition to continue participating in joint debates in the parliament and try to find common ground.

Arman Yeghoyan spoke about the draft and answered the observations made in the speeches of the opposition colleagues.

Artur Khachatryan noted that the political approaches of the authorities have changed. According to the MP, the difficult situation created in the country is the result of the policy implemented by the Government.

From a point of view of recording the ideas expressed about the draft, Vahagn Aleksanyan emphasized the ongoing debate in the parliament. The deputy welcomed the return of the opposition to the parliament, which will facilitate holding more such debates.

In Kristine Vardanyan’s opinion, the only problem of Armenia is to confront the enemy. “You can confront the enemy not by not talking about your own rights and making concessions, but by defending yourself, preventing his attacks, by acquiring allies, including weapons.

The NA Vice President Ruben Rubinyan gave an extraordinary speech. He positively assessed the ongoing debate, highlighting it from the point of view of being deep. According to him, the desire of the power is to resolve the issue of the rights and security of the people of Artsakh, because, otherwise, it will mean the depopulation of Artsakh or the genocide of the people of Artsakh. He also believes that this issue can be resolved through direct negotiations between Baku and Stepanakert with the participation of the international mechanism. Ruben Rubinyan also emphasized that the Azerbaijani armed forces should leave the occupied territories of Armenia immediately and without preconditions.

“And the reason why we do not agree with some of the paragraphs in your proposed draft statement is that we will contradict the three points I mentioned by accepting that statement,” the NA Vice President explained.