This ash will always be pounding in our hearts – Konstantin Zatulin addresses Artsakh people

First Deputy Chair of Russia’s State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Konstantin Zatulin addressed Artsakh people on the occasion of Artsakh Independence Day, which is celebrated on September 2, live on Alpha News.

“Dear residents of Nagorno-Karabakh, citizens of the unrecognized but actually existing Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, also known as the Republic of Artsakh. On the eve of the official holiday of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Independence Day, which was celebrated in previous years on September 2, I considered it my duty to express my sympathy to you, who, unfortunately, lost their homeland as a result of the events of 2020-2023 and left the lands where your ancestors lived and your children were born.

This is certainly a huge tragedy. No matter what anyone says about this, I am sure that we in Russia cannot but express our sympathy and desire to help you in today’s situation.

I do not want to reduce everything now to talking about political problems and naming the culprits, although they certainly exist. I just want to say that in this moment, Russians, if they are truly Russians, cannot help but feel sympathy and desire to help, which I have mentioned in relation to fellow believers, in relation to Armenians who have left their homes, their dear places, their churches, their monasteries, and, as we know, they were forced to become refugees in a very short time. This ash will always be pounding in our hearts.

I am giving my speech on August 30, the birthday of my old friend Bako Sahakyan. On this day, I always wished him a happy birthday, just as he congratulated me a week after that. We were born one week apart. I hope that my words will reach him, although I cannot be completely sure of this. He, like Arkady Ghukasyan, Ruben Vardanyan, and others, were captured and imprisoned. I pray to God that nothing bad happens to them and that they return to their families as soon as possible, return to Armenia because it is unlikely that they would agree to stay in Nagorno-Karabakh, where there is no Armenian population left.

I am sure that in the future, solutions will be found that will allow to restore justice without resorting to violence and stop the situation in which these people ended up, I repeat, the native inhabitants of this land—the land where the most important monuments, architectures, temples, and monasteries, which are not only important for the culture of Armenia but also for the whole world, are located. I hope that the lands, which are abandoned today, will be cultivated again by the hardworking hands of their owners. But this is my wish. This is my hope.

I am sure that those of you who are still thinking about Nagorno-Karabakh are thinking about it every day for 24 hours. Once again, on the eve of September 2, I wish you, first of all, peace. I wish you healing all your wounds, solving all the problems of your life. I really hope that not indifferent people in Russia—like Russia itself—who are also experiencing difficult times today, when there is an enemy on our territory, in the Kursk region, destroying our villages and humiliating our citizens—at this moment, no matter what, we must show solidarity to the people who have suffered, even if they are far from today’s territory of Russia. It has always been so, and it was so in a time of great misfortunes that we had been going through together for hundreds of years.

I am sure that despite any political or other condition, these feelings will continue to generate hope for the future in us. I wish you happiness, peaceful skies, good health, and success in studies to your children, who, I hope, will go to school on September 2. Thank you,” Zatulin said.