“Legally, Nagorno-Karabakh does not exist as an entity,” he said. “There are only our deported [Karabakh Armenian] compatriots whose problems the Armenian government is addressing in an excellent way.”
Simonian, who is a key member of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s political team, made the comments after opposition members of the Armenian parliament challenged him to explain why he has been blocking sessions of a joint commission of Armenian and Karabakh lawmakers that had existed for decades.
“I think that we must very seriously consider abolishing that format because Nagorno-Karabakh, Artsakh officials don’t exist anymore and nobody has such a status in Armenia anymore,” he replied.
“The Artsakh Republic disbanded itself by the decision of its officials,” he said on the parliament floor, dismissing opposition arguments that the unrecognized republic is referenced in many Armenian legal acts.
Simonian alluded to a decree which Samvel Shahramanian, the Karabakh president, signed in September 2023 more than a week after an Azerbaijani military offensive that paved the way for the restoration of Baku’s full control of the territory.
Shahramanian invalidated the decree liquidating the republic in December. He argued that he had to sign it in order to enable the Karabakh Armenians to safely flee to Armenia.
Artur Khachatrian, an Armenian opposition lawmaker, likewise countered on Monday that the decree helped to prevent a “massacre” of Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population. He too described it as null and void.
“The term ‘president of Nagorno-Karabakh’ is non-existent for me,” insisted Simonian, Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said the Armenian authorities must therefore “review the meaning of that building” housing Karabakh’s permanent representation in Yerevan.
Armenia - Samvel Shahramanian addresses protesters outside the Karabakh mission in Yerevan, October 20, 2023.
A special police squad broke into the representation’s compound and seized Shahramanian’s official car on June 21 one week after Pashinian again threatened to crack down on the exiled Karabakh leader. Pashinian accused him of encouraging Karabakh refugees to participate in antigovernment protests in Yerevan.
The threats came the day after Shahramanian pushed back against Pashinian’s allegations that Karabakh forces did not fight back the Azerbaijani offensive because the authorities in Stepanakert as well as the Armenian opposition wanted the region’s population to flee to Armenia to topple him. At least 198 soldiers and 25 civilian residents of Karabakh were killed during the 24-hour hostilities.
Shahramanian’s office did not respond to Simonian’s remarks. Metakse Hakobian, an outspoken Karabakh lawmaker also exiled in Yerevan, took to Facebook to condemn them.
“The Republic of Artsakh was occupied by the enemy, Azerbaijan, as a result of the policy pursued by the Armenian authorities,” she wrote.
Ishkhan Saghatelian, a leading member of Armenia’s main opposition Hayastan alliance, said that Pashinian’s administration keeps trying to shift the blame for the fall of Karabakh. It is also executing Azerbaijan’s orders, charged Saghatelian.
Pashinian has repeatedly indicated that the Karabakh issue is closed for his administration. He publicly recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over the region several months before the Azerbaijani offensive.