News - Karabakh president explains how he managed to reach Armenia by helicopter but other top Artsakh leaders couldn’t

How did you manage to reach Armenia by helicopter from Artsakh, while the rest of the military-political leadership of Artsakh did not? Reporters asked this question to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) President Samvel Shahramanyan at Yerablur Military Pantheon of Yerevan Friday. In response, Shahramanyan said: "I cannot comment on the decisions that were being made in Azerbaijan. The decisions to arrest, take those people captives were being made by Azerbaijanis. I don't know why no such decision was made regarding me. We will get the answer to that in time." To the question whether it was possible not to go to negotiations with the Azerbaijanis and not to sign the decree on the dissolution of Artsakh, and what would have happened in that case, Shahramanyan responded: "No one could have predicted what the outcome would be. Until the last second, the people of Artsakh did not want to leave their homes. We were negotiating with the Azerbaijani party in order to keep the situation stable and start negotiations on the future fate of Artsakh and the [Armenian] people of Artsakh. But we did not receive corresponding guarantees from Azerbaijan that the [Armenian] people [of Artsakh] can continue to live there safely." And talking about the accusations that the leadership of Artsakh had refused the negotiations with Azerbaijan in Bulgarian capital Sofia and instead went to negotiate in Yevlakh, Azerbaijan, the president of Artsakh said: "Arayik Harutyunyan was the [Artsakh] president at that time. And as far as I know, the Artsakh party has never refused negotiations, anywhere, under any circumstances."