YEREVAN. – Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party Chairman Raffi Hovannisian has not regretted going to Azerbaijani capital city Baku and, if invited again, he will be pleased to go, Hovannisian himself stated during a press conference on Wednesday.   

To note, Raffi Hovannisian had visited Baku to attend and address the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), to which he was invited as leader of the Heritage Party.  

The party chairman informed that the ICAAP conference kicked in the morning of November 22, but, prior to that, the Azerbaijani reporters had approached him and posed questions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani challenges and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. 

“It was decided that my keynote address be covered as little as possible. The address was followed by the addresses of the Azerbaijani co-chairs,” Hovannisian said.

Also, he informed that in the morning of the previous day, a draft resolution—which reflected neither on Armenia nor Azerbaijan nor Karabakh—was included in the conference agenda. “But on the morning of November 23, when I came to deliver my address, a change was apparent. The agenda had changed, [and] the adoption [of the aforesaid resolution] was removed from the agenda. It was apparent that something else was being prepared. They had decided to create an illusion of ratifying [the resolution] by way of reading [it]; that resolution was read, but it was never agreed upon,” the Heritage Party Chairman said.            

Also, Raffi Hovannisian noted that many were hearing the Armenian viewpoint for the first time, and he underscored that Armenia needs to be present everywhere to balance the diplomatic shortfalls.

While in Baku, the Armenian opposition party leader also asked that he meet with an Armenian family, but this meeting did not take place because no such family was found.

Photo by Sona Barseghyan/NEWS.am