NKR Parliament Speaker: Artsakh Representative Office in Yerevan is Artsakh people`s last refuge 

ArmInfo. No government is able to finally close the Artsakh issue, and the NKR Parliament, as a legitimate body, will continue to carry out its functions. Speaker of the Artsakh Parliament Ashot Danielyan stated this in a conversation with journalists on July 21, addressing the Armenian authorities' attempts to take away the building of the NKR Representative Office in Yerevan.

As Danielyan noted, the authorities can actually deprive the Artsakh people of the last place that unites them in Armenia. He emphasized that the representative office is  the place where the residents of Artsakh turn for help when they face problems and cannot find solutions in other state agencies in Armenia.

One such issues, according to him, is the implementation of the inalienable right of return. "In addition, it is worth noting that this attempt to take away the representative office is in no way connected with the approach imposed by the authorities on the alleged unacceptability of the existence of a "state within a state," the Chairman of the National Assembly of Artsakh added.

Danielyan pointed out that the work of the representative office is carried out within the framework of the laws of Armenia, including the functioning of the diplomatic mission.  He also noted that the process that began today is not new, as attacks on the state institutions of Artsakh have always taken place, it is just that this time it has targeted the NKR representative office. Meanwhile, the speaker of the parliament explained that there are  no legal grounds for  these actions, as the representative office was granted to the Artsakh authorities by decision of the Armenian government in 1997, and the owner is the NKR government.

Touching upon how they are going to resist this attempt, he mentioned that they have a group of lawyers from both Artsakh and Armenia who are working in this direction. He added that this team of lawyers will do everything possible within the framework of the law to preserve the building.

Referring to the statements of the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan that Artsakh should have been recognized as part of Azerbaijan earlier, Danielyan wondered: if this is true, then why did the UN create the OSCE Minsk Group format. Additionally, no other government before the Prime Minister of Armenia has ever recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan.

In this regard, Danielyan added that if there were no basis for the implementation of Artsakh's right to self- determination, then the OSCE Minsk Group would not have been established, there would not have been a trilateral agreement on November 9, 2020 after a 44-day war, and there would not have been a decision by the International Court of Justice adopted during the Azerbaijani blockade of the NKR. According to him, all of the fore-mentioned demonstrate the clear fact that only the current Armenian government has become an obstacle to the implementation of the legal and internationally recognized rights of the Artsakh people.  "There is no point in even commenting on this, as the anti-Armenian policy of these authorities is evident," Danielyan concluded.