Republic Party leader Aram Sargsyan has described discussions about the settlement of 300,000 Azerbaijanis in Armenia as an “invented fairy tale.” He made the remarks during an election campaign event in Kotayk Province.
“Those parties aligned with the Russian camp that talk about 300,000 Azerbaijanis and other such things — who brought Azerbaijanis to Nagorno-Karabakh? Weren’t Russian peacekeepers standing there when Azerbaijanis came to Karabakh? Who brought Azerbaijanis to Nakhchivan?” Sargsyan said, according to Armenpress.
He added that Point 9 of the November 9, 2020 statement, which concerned the unblocking of regional communications and the provision of a route through Armenian territory linking mainland Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan, was in fact about the entry of Azerbaijanis.
“That ninth point of the statement, championed by Robert Kocharyan, Samvel Karapetyan and Gagik Tsarukyan, was precisely intended to bring Turks into Armenia. That is how the Turks were supposed to come, and now they are talking about bringing in 300,000 Turks,” Aram Sargsyan said, stressing that all of this is an invented fairy tale directed against Armenia.
According to him, representatives of his political force have sufficient experience and are capable of raising the country’s key issues in the National Assembly while also presenting realistic solutions.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan have stated that such an issue has never been discussed and will not be discussed in negotiations with Azerbaijan.
The election campaign, which began on May 8, will continue until June 5. June 6 will be a day of silence, and voting will take place on June 7. On May 25, it became known that the Alliance Progressive Centrist Party had submitted a request to withdraw from the election, after which the Central Electoral Commission invalidated the registration of the party’s electoral list. As a result, there will be no ballot paper numbered 13 in the upcoming elections.
