Opposition and majority fail to agree on draft statement after urgent discussions on border

The ruling bloc and opposition lawmakers failed to agree upon the text of the National Assembly Statement drafted by the opposition which was supposed to be adopted as result of the urgent discussions on “The Current Situation and Demarcation Issues at the Line of Contact of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan”.

Opposition Pativ Unem bloc MP Tigran Abrahamyan presented the draft statement before a voting.

The draft statement particularly condemned the 2020 Azeri-Turkish aggression involving terrorist formations and mercenaries against Artsakh, gross violations of international law against captives committed by Azerbaijan after the hostilities ended, the actions committed by Azerbaijan constituting war crimes, the annexation of territories of the Republic of Artsakh by Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani state-sanctioned Armenophobic rhetoric. It further noted that the abovementioned crimes are still ongoing and that Azerbaijan is displaying aspirations against territories of the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh; and that the determination of borders is the sector of exclusive jurisdiction of bordering countries and that borders are determined through consent of the bordering countries based on international law.

The draft statement noted that the guaranteed exercise of the right to self-determination of the people of Artsakh in their historical territory and the de-occupation of the annexed territories is the main pre-condition of establishing peace in the region in the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship format.

Among others, the draft statement, further obliged the government to refrain from engaging in negotiations, written or verbal agreements, which would violate the requirements of the Armenian constitution and the will of the Armenia...