News - Alen Simonyan: Some time should pass before Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians can return to their homes

Armenia does not have any territorial demands from its neighbors; by the way, all Armenian authorities have announced this. Alen Simonyan, speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, told this to reporters in the NA Thursday.   "They have never said that they have a territorial claim to Azerbaijan. Yes, they have not said that Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] is a part of Azerbaijan, we have said loudly about it that we recognize and have no ambitions for the internationally recognized territory of any of our neighboring countries," said Simonyan. To the question whether the matter of the return of Artsakh Armenians was being discussed, and whether they will be able to return to Artsakh, the Armenian NA speaker responded as follows: "I believe that due to security issues, some time should pass; that's my opinion. That doesn't mean there aren't talks about it, or there is a decision about it. But I honestly don’t see how Armenians can return to Nagorno-Karabakh today, in the case when in two to three days, more than 100 thousand Armenians left their homes [in Karabakh] and fled, fearing possible threats from the Azerbaijanis. Yes, we want everyone to return to their homes; [but] this does not exclude the fact that we are trying to provide our [aforesaid] compatriots with everything in Armenia. Contrary to many predictions, it can be said [that] we have done the maximum and will continue to do [it]."