From the country’s top officials, we witness the propagation of hatred towards the people of Artsakh — Nare Simonyan

After the end of the 44-day war a part of our society realized that these authorities intentionally did everything possible for Artsakh to be completely surrendered, Artsakh public activist Nare Simonyan told Alpha News.

“After the end of the 44-day war in 2020, a significant part of our society realized that these authorities were not only unwilling to defend Artsakh but also deliberately did everything possible so that Artsakh would be completely surrendered. When in 2021 in their pre-election program they needed to convince Armenian voters and society that they were fighting for Artsakh and the rights of the Artsakh people were a priority for them, they paid considerable attention to Artsakh’s right to self-determination, even talked about de-occupation of Hadrut and Shushi. But after the elections we saw that they became more aggressive on the Artsakh issue,” Nare Simonyan noted.

According to her, throughout the blockade and forced displacement, the current authorities provided informational support to Azerbaijan.

“We saw the Prague statement, and the statements that followed it. Blockaded Artsakh did not receive any support. There was no acknowledgment that the residents of Artsakh faced the threat of genocide, nor was there any recognition of their right to self-determination. Instead, statements were made on various platforms favoring Azerbaijan, which gave it the green light to implement its genocidal policy,” she stressed.

Simonyan emphasized that the decisions made by the current authorities are driven by their whims and the overarching goal of retaining power.

“This false, illegal decree was signed not under the threat of force, but precisely under the conditions of its use. Afterwards, when journalists contacted the Armenian Foreign Ministry, it was claimed that the return of Artsakh Armenians was on the agenda. However, a few days ago we witnessed a shameful statement by the same Foreign Ministry that the issue of the return of the Artsakh people is no longer on the agenda. If we did not know that the author of such a statement was the Armenian Foreign Ministry, we would think that it was made by Azerbaijan. It turns out that Armenian diplomacy under the current authorities does not have a clear course, and their decisions are driven by their whims and their main goal to retain power. During today’s protest it was mentioned that the post-election program based on the pre-election program of the authorities was another deception with the help of which they tried to convince the Armenian society of their readiness and willingness to fight for Artsakh. However, over the past five years we saw only a gradual rejection of Artsakh and propaganda of hatred towards the Artsakh people by the country’s top officials,” Simonyan concluded.