By Susan Badalian and Artak Khulian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — The pro-government majority in the Armenian parliament rejected on April 30 an opposition initiative to debate Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s territorial concessions to Azerbaijan that have sparked angry protests across Armenia.
Deputies representing Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party refused to include on the parliament agenda a draft statement describing the planned handover of four border areas to Baku as illegal and dangerous for the country’s national security.
“Civil Contract has once again refused to adopt this statement strengthening our statehood,” said Artsvik Minasyan, a senior lawmaker from the main opposition Hayastan alliance.
“States have state borders, but what you want us to be guided by a line of contact,” countered Civil Contract’s Maria Karapetyan. “How does it strengthen the statehood?”
Hayastan and other opposition groups say that the land handover would create severe security risks for not only border villages in Armenia’s northern Tavush province but also the country as a whole. They maintain that Armenian withdrawal from those border areas would leave Tavush far more vulnerable to Azerbaijani attacks.
