The final sitting of the 7th session of the 7th convocation Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) National Assembly (NA) was convened Thursday.
The first item on the agenda was the report on the progress and results of the Artsakh president's 2022 activity program and the 2023 activity program.
President Arayik Harutyunyan answered many questions of the MPs—and which were related to the aforesaid program, the situation in Artsakh, the provocations of Azerbaijan, and the negotiation process.
CivilNet was in attendance to this sitting and noted the most important thoughts expressed during the question-and-answer session between the Artsakh MPs and the president.
In particular, the president stated why Artsakh should not accept Azerbaijan's proposal and go to its capital Baku to negotiate.
"Because Baku is discussing one topic with us—integration; it is not discussing a second topic. They say from various places: ‘let's go, convince.’ I have tried, friends, I have tried for two years. If anyone thinks that I was a bad negotiator, [then] I did not negotiate, I did not go at the last phase. Those negotiations do not give results because at the end they come, say 'this is our goal,'" Harutyunyan said.
"They do not tell [this] only to us, they are telling that agenda at the UN, they are telling [it] yesterday and today—during the Blinken-Mirzoyan-Bayramov meeting. Azerbaijan tells us: first point: to disband the [Artsakh] Defense Army. We will disband, then go to the meeting. Let me say the sequence: ‘you go announce you have disbanded the army, you dissolve the [Artsakh] public administration system.’ They hardly create a mechanism for community elections, after which they will give the [natural] gas, give the electricity, and let come and go on the [Lachin] road," the Artsakh President noted.
"And it is clear how they will leave [the people of Artsakh] as a citizen of Azerbaijan. I am not against negotiations, I am not against meetings. I was the most engaged and conducted the most meetings. We shall realize that we will have problems; all of that is surmountable. People, we have two things to do: self-defense and increasing endurance. What have we done and what will we do in that regard? If there will be a wish, we will discuss separately," Arayik Harutyunyan said.
