I view the proposal of the ‘I Have Honor’ and “Armenia’ opposition factions of the National Assembly to set up a standing parliamentary committee on Nagorno-Karabakh as a clear political message addressed to the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as to Diaspora Armenians, Azerbaijan, Turkey and the international community. This is what leader of the opposition ‘I Have Honor’ faction Artur Vanetsyan said during today’s discussion on the creation of standing parliamentary committees held as part of the special session of the National Assembly.

According to him, the message is that Armenia hasn’t forgotten about Nagorno-Karabakh and that it hasn’t renounced and isn’t going to renounce the solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue as such. He also mentioned the importance of the committee as an entity and reminded that there used to be a similar committee in the former Supreme Council of Armenia.

“However, after the third war in Nagorno-Karabakh, once again, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh are in a situation where it is necessary to send an appropriate political message and work harder, but within the scope of the parliament,” the parliamentarian clarified, adding that If the proposal is rejected, people in Armenia might have substantiated doubts that the political majority and those who are currently in power are either trying to not have anything to do with the Nagorno-Karabakh issue or are consistently doing that. “We can’t allow this since Nagorno-Karabakh has been and is Armenian land,” Vanetsyan said.