News - Legislature speaker proposes to abolish Armenia-Karabakh interparliamentary commission

I personally think that this format should be dissolved because the opposite side is no longer competent and does not represent what it once represented. Speaker Alen Simonyan said this from the rostrum of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia—and responding to opposition Artsvik Minasyan's remarks that steps should be taken for the Armenia-Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) interparliamentary commission to convene a meeting. "I believe that we should discuss the matter of canceling that format because there is no longer a Nagorno-Karabakh, Artsakh official, and no one in Armenia has a similar status any longer. I don't know who I should discuss this with in the case of a possible meeting. As a lawyer also I believe that this format does not exist [anymore]," said Simonyan. Reacting, Artsvik Minasyan said: "If we are moving with the constitution and laws [of Armenia], the legal expression of ‘Artsakh’ is present not only in many laws of Armenia, but also in international treaties, and the existence of this document is not for a person to try to abolish or not; there are institutions for that. You have no right to consider cancelled the Artsakh Republic NA, which was elected by the people of Artsakh; you are obligated to be guided by the law. As long as those acts are in place, it's your duty to move with them." "The Artsakh Republic dissolved itself by the decision of its own officials. Legal relations are possible if there are two parties. I cannot call a meeting with some people, I can organize a reception day for Armenia’s citizens; that's my only duty today," Alen Simonyan said in response.