In Another Disparaging Remark, Parliament Speaker Implies Azerbaijan Had Right to Capture Karabakh

Parliament speaker Alen Simonyan faced strong opposition criticism on Tuesday after implying that Azerbaijan had a legitimate right to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh by force.

“When the second Karabakh war started [in 2020] we were very upset because the world did not respond to that war the way we wanted,” Simonyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in a weekend interview. “The reason [for that response] was also the lack of legitimacy, the lack of legitimacy on our side.”

“Attacking Karabakh and occupying territories from Armenia are different things from the legal standpoint,” he said. “Azerbaijan carried out an operation in Karabakh behind which it had at least three or four UN [Security Council] resolutions.”

Gegham Manukyan, a lawmaker from the main opposition Hayastan alliance, condemned the remarks during a session of the Armenian parliament, challenging Simonyan to say who advised him to make that “very stupid point.” Manukyan argued that the UN resolutions adopted in the early 1990s did not relate to Karabakh’s status.

“They were about halting hostilities,” said Manukyan. “The UN resolutions did not give Azerbaijan any semi-legitimate, even insignificant, legal basis for attacking and occupying Artsakh.”

Simonyan rejected the criticism and stood by his remarks. “We are talking about a legitimate right, and there is nothing new in what I said,” he said.

“The fact is that that territory in question was and is an internationally part of Azerbaijan,” added the controversial speaker allied to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Pashinyan publicly recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh in May 2023 about three years after holding a rally in Stepanakert and declaring: “Artsakh is Armenia. Period.” His political opponents say that recognition precipitated Azerbaijan’s September 2023 military offensive that restored Azerbaijani control over Karabakh and forced the region’s population to flee to Armenia.

They also hold Pashinyan responsible for Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war. Responding to this accusation, the premier stated in April 2022 that he “could have averted the war, as a result of which we would have had the same situation, but of course without the casualties.”

That statement angered the families of some of at least 3,825 Armenian soldiers killed during the six-week hostilities. They said Pashinyan thus publicly admitted deliberately sacrificing thousands of lives and must be prosecuted for that.

For his part, Simonyan made in 2021 disparaging comments about other Armenian soldiers who were taken prisoner during the 2020 war. Some of their relatives staged angry protests against the speaker.