To return to Artsakh, it is necessary to preserve the state structures and the authorities — Kristine Vardanyan

The issue of Artsakh is not closed for us, ARF-D member Kristine Vardanyan told Alpha News, referring to the event called “Return” that marks the 33rd anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Artsakh.

“The name of the event ‘Return’ was not chosen by chance. Its meaning is to return Artsakh first and then let the people of Artsakh return there. On this day, we tried to present our conceptual alternative. Aliyev and Pashinyan say that the issue of Artsakh is closed. We say that it is not closed for us. The issue cannot be resolved through the use of force, ethnic cleansing, or genocide.

This does not exist anywhere in the world and, in general, contradicts the fundamental norms of international law. Yes, we have lost the war, but we should not forget what we are fighting for. At this stage, we have lost, but this cannot be a verdict,” Kristine Vardanyan said.

She noted that the first and most important step should be the return of the Artsakh people so that they can talk about their self-determination again.

“For many years, we have been the force that fought for the self-determination of Artsakh. We had thousands of victims, and now we are talking about the right to return in those conditions when Artsakh was left without Armenians. We are in an extremely bad situation, so the first rational step should be to think about how Armenians can return to Artsakh and live there again, so that we can talk about self-determination and other rights. The first step should be to develop a concept.

We are talking about a full, not an individual return. We are talking about international guarantees and the return of Artsakh to the agenda of negotiations on this very point. We say that there are all prerequisites for putting this topic on the agenda of the negotiations. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries also talk about this, and this is our shield,” she said.

According to Vardanyan, in order to return to Artsakh, first of all, it is necessary to preserve the authorities and state structures.

“If we want to return to Artsakh, we must protect the authorities of Artsakh and the state institutions formed as a result of the elections of its people, which will bring us one step closer to returning. We must exclude internal ethnic hostility and hate speech, and in all instances we must raise the issue of ethnic cleansing that took place in Artsakh.

All this is not just toasts, this was also discussed during the ‘Return’ event, and serious work is underway in this direction. We receive many messages of support from almost all corners of the world, in which members of the Council of Europe, members of governments, representatives of the US Congress, and the State Duma of Russia talk about these very points, about the rights and protection of the right of Artsakh people to return. It is the rejection of this agenda that led to the fact that today only our concessions are being discussed at the negotiating table rather than the rights that we have,” Kristine Vardanyan concluded.