President of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Arayik Haroutyunyan stated the following in his video message today:

“Dear people of Artsakh, I advise you to stay away from political uprisings and political phenomena.

Don’t take part in the processes on the streets of Yerevan. This is not how the people of Artsakh are. All Armenians have stood with you and fought for you. Don’t give in to political intrigues. I call on you to return to Nagorno-Karabakh. We all need to return. We will solve the problems with water, electricity and gas over the next few days. We have all the resources so that there won’t be any social issues. The Armenians of Hadrut have addressed me and told me what we can do. Of course, we needed to defend Hadrut first. We failed, but we promise to do everything to solve all social issues. We express commitment to provide the minimum conditions in Yerevan and then in Artsakh.

Currently, we don’t have a final decision on our future actions, but I would like to guarantee that the roads will be safe. Don’t transfer your belongings from Artsakh to Armenia. You will become convinced that we will live better in Artsakh than any other place.

Don’t give in to provocations. This is a provocation to make us lose our state once and for all. We need to stand united to fight against the external enemy. I want to assure you that Artsakh will remain Armenian.”