Narek Karapetyan faults officials over Vance's visit to Armenian Genocide Memorial

Narek Karapetyan, coordinator of the Mer Dzevov (In Our Way) movement, on Wednesday criticized Armenian government officials for failing to accompany U.S. Vice President JD Vance to the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial, saying officials were reluctant to offend Turkey.

“Do you know what is humiliating? The U.S. vice president goes to Tsitsernakaberd and none of Armenia’s proudly speaking officials dares to accompany him because they are afraid of displeasing the Turks,” Karapetyan wrote on Facebook.

He stressed that the U.S. vice president had been asked to remove a social media post referring to the Armenian Genocide from his remarks, despite personally expressing a desire to visit the memorial.

Karapetyan said former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who previously visited Armenia, had described the reported removal of the reference as “deeply disappointing”.

Karapetyan called on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan not to compromise on what he described as Armenia’s national dignity.

“Our national dignity is not for sale. The distorted fate of millions of victims is not a political game for you to maintain power. You cannot renounce recognition of the genocide,” he said.