YEREVAN. – Hraparak daily of Armenia writes: A rally and a symbolic session of the Supreme Council [(SC)] will be held today, August 23, within the framework of the movement initiated by the former head of the staff of the CC [(Constitutional Court)], Edgar Ghazaryan.

During the session, the politicians at the origins of [Armenia’s] independence will reaffirm the provisions of the Declaration of Independence adopted in 1990. According to Ghazaryan's idea, it is with this session and rally that the process of removing [PM] Nikol Pashinyan [from power] will begin, which will end on September 21—with his resignation.

In order to organize the SC session, a group of SC MPs held several meetings-discussions last week.

Hovik Aghazaryan, an MP of the [ruling] "Civil Contract" Faction, also participated in one of the gatherings and, according to our information, he has proposed to bring the matter of recognition of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] [by Armenia] to the agenda during the symbolic session.

We talked with Hovik Aghazaryan.

- (...) I just say to the oppositionists: be honest, write directly the idea you are pursuing—recognition of Artsakh. You want to please Russia, and you this... it won't happen that way.

- And for your government, can we say that recognition was not on the agenda, neither during the [Artsakh] war [in the fall of 2020] nor now?

- Yes. Now is not the opportune moment because the recognition of Artsakh today would mean going against our plan to establish peace and improve relations with our neighbors. Recognizing the independence of Artsakh means submitting territorial claims against Azerbaijan. It means declaring war on Azerbaijan, and then neither the CSTO nor the Russians will get involved, whereas the Turks will get involved, and there will be a big war.

- You did not even take that step during the war. Now you are threatening with a new war.

- Well, yes because our line is that we don't have territorial issues, demands towards Azerbaijan—not counting the border incidents, which, I'm convinced, will be resolved. We have a task of exercising the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh.