Politician: Armenia is defenseless without Artsakh

Hakob Hakobyan, co-chair of the Justice party of Artsakh, has criticized the Armenian government's response to the 2023 forced displacement of tens of thousands of Armenians from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), calling it an "ongoing national tragedy".

In a social media post on Friday, Hakobyan accused the Armenian leadership of attempting to pressure and silence the Artsakh people who live “in a state of grief, injustice and abandonment”.

He dismissed the government’s post-displacement support efforts as ineffective. “The so-called ‘housing program’ is an illusion, it's inaccessible and humiliating,” Hakobyan said. “Instead of real solutions, we’re witnessing interrogations, politically motivated arrests and attempts to discredit the Artsakh people.”

They claimed that the recent unjustified detention of Artsakh MP Davit Galstyan exposed the Armenian leadership’s blatant repressive tactics and revealed its fear of the truth.

“No one can silence collective pain. It lives on in memory, anger and the will to resist. Society cannot remain silent in the face of such injustice,” the politician stressed.

Hakobyan further criticized the Armenian leadership's claims that Artsakh was an obstacle to peace. “Artsakh was never a hindrance, it was a shield. It was the heart of Armenian resistance. With its loss, we’ve also lost a pillar of our security and dignity. Armenia without Artsakh is not peaceful, it is defenseless. Return will happen.”

“Freedom to all political prisoners!” he concluded.