Speaker of Armenian parliament against international law The clownery of Alen Simonyan

The Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan, is the author of a vast number of not just contradictory but mutually exclusive statements. On February 11, he once again "shined" with this "talent" in full force. "The pioneer in recognising Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan was the President of the Russian Federation... The whole world, including within Russia itself, knows perfectly well what happened and how they left us alone," the Speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly declared.

This is a lie. No state in the world has ever officially recognised the Karabakh region as anything other than Azerbaijani territory. Even official Paris, after the disgraceful and provocative resolution passed by the French Senate on recognising the "independence" of Azerbaijan’s temporarily occupied territories, issued a statement affirming that France recognises Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

Simonyan is, of course, fully aware of all this—as well as the fact that both Azerbaijan and Armenia joined the United Nations within their Soviet-era borders. Moreover, the four well-known UN Security Council resolutions explicitly demanded the withdrawal of all illegal Armenian armed formations from Azerbaijan’s occupied territories. In other words, the question of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over its temporarily occupied territories was never truly in doubt.

Furthermore, this very fact was recently acknowledged by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in a Facebook post. I must remind the Speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly of Pashinyan’s own words: "Since 1994, after the ceasefire began, the negotiation process revolved around the return of Karabakh to Azerbaijan. This meant that negotiations could have only one outcome: the actual return of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. We did not do this, and the international community, which had initially defined the framework of this negotiation process, did not seriously oppose the war. That is the reality, dear people."

So, in essence, Simonyan is disavowing Pashinyan—and, at the same time, international law. Yes, there are numerous legitimate grievances against Russia, including from Azerbaijan, but blaming it for simply acknowledging that Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan is sheer foolishness. A foolishness that shines even brighter against the backdrop of the Armenian parliamentary speaker’s explanation to Armenian journalists that he cannot call Karabakh "Artsakh" because he is a political figure and bears responsibility.

As we can see, Simonyan has engaged in a fierce polemical battle with himself—and, once again, with an earlier version of Nikol Pashinyan. The same Pashinyan who once stood in Khankendi, shouting, "Karabakh is Armenia, period." Back then, Simonyan did not object to Pashinyan’s claim—because he fully shared that position. This means that either he did not consider himself a political figure at the time, or he is now blatantly and shamelessly lying, contradicting his own exalted persona.

Equally absurd is his lamentation that Russia "abandoned" Armenia. The truth, as is often the case with statements from official Yerevan, is quite different. Russia supplied Armenia with weapons—both officially and unofficially, including during the 44-day war. Azerbaijan pointed this out then and continues to do so now. And, interestingly, Simonyan himself indirectly acknowledged this. "The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh had the opportunity to fight with the weapons they had," he stated.

And where did the militants in Karabakh get their weapons? From Armenia. And where did Armenia get them? From Russia.

At the same time—and for this, he deserves special thanks—Simonyan has once again acknowledged two important facts. First, he admitted that Armenia had been arming militants in Azerbaijan’s temporarily occupied territories. Second, he inadvertently confirmed the legitimacy of Azerbaijan’s anti-terror operation in its Karabakh region.

I suspect that at some point, Alen Simonyan will once again attempt to contradict himself, but that would be nothing more than yet another circus act rather than a political statement. However, such clownery has not been limited to him alone—other representatives of official Yerevan, including Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, have been guilty of the same.