MP criticizes Pashinyan's Artsakh policy, insists on right of return

The right of Artsakh Armenians to return to their homeland cannot be contingent upon any prime minister’s personal views or political convenience, MP Metakse Hakobyan of Artsakh’s Justice faction said at Armenian parliamentary hearings on Friday. The session focused on an opposition-drafted statement calling for a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Hakobyan reminded lawmakers that two years have passed since the ethnic cleansing in Artsakh, stressing that Armenia’s government has since taken a course she described as equally dangerous.

“Today, under Nikol Pashinyan’s leadership, the Armenian government not only fails to implement any targeted policy to defend the rights of Artsakh Armenians, but also openly seeks to close the Artsakh issue by declaring it resolved,” she said.

According to Hakobyan, Pashinyan’s government has erased Artsakh “territorially, politically and even from a humanitarian perspective.”

“Artsakh will never be forgotten. The right of Artsakh Armenians to return to their homes cannot be conditioned by the personal views or political expediency of any prime minister,” she insisted.

Hakobyan further emphasized that the displaced people of Artsakh are not only deprived of their ancestral homeland but also left in a state of social neglect and legal uncertainty, with no vision or prospects offered by the Armenian state.