YEREVAN (Armenpress) — Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Armenian prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, invited Mehriban Aliyeva, the wife of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, to Artsakh, on December 4.
“A few days ago Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva said on her Telegram account that she dreamed of listening to a mugham [Azeri folk music] in Artsakh. I invite Mehriban Aliyeva to Artsakh, and she will be our guest. Our people, the people of Artsakh know how to host, honor a guest, and one of the rules of our hospitality is to honor the guest with music he/she prefers. We can ensure a mugham, we can make her dream come true and listen her beloved music in Karabakh. This is an invitation, and if she accepts this invitation, I am also ready in my turn to be hosted in Baku,” Hakobyan said at the conference on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution on Women, Peace and Security. In 2000, the UNSC formally acknowledged through Resolution 1325 the changing nature of warfare, in which civilians are increasingly targeted, and women continue to be excluded from participation in peace processes.
“But if Mehriban Aliyeva means that their dream is to come to Artsakh to listen to a mugham with war, I assure her that in that case this dream will remain unfulfilled,” she added.
Hakobyan added that the only way to reach that dream is through peace, the normal relations with Artsakh and the mutual visits as a guest. She said that different nations of the world managed to overcome wars and hatred over the course of years.
“If this happened to other European nations, why can’t we do that? The Azerbaijani side just needs to show political will and refuse to wage war because it will gain nothing with it. I want to once again state that this invitation is very serious,” Hakobyan said.
