Armenian National Assembly members prevented from entering Nagorno-Karabakh by Russian peacekeepers

| News, Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh

On April 12, members of the Armenian National Assembly sought to visit Nagorno-Karabakh but were denied entry.

In a Facebook post, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a member of the opposition Armenia Alliance, claimed that the ban on his and his colleagues' entry to Nagorno-Karabakh is the result of a deal between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to "isolate Karabakh and then evict Armenians [living there]."

Saghatelyan continued, "it is significant that the Azerbaijani authorities' reaction to our visit was same and complimentary" to that of Armenia's present administration.

Armenia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern "about the fact that servicemen of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh did not allow a group of deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia to enter Nagorno-Karabakh" in a statement released shortly after Saghatelyan's announcement.

These actions, according to the ministry, are in violation of the November 9 trilateral declaration issued after the 2020 conflict, which envisions a continuous connectivity between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia via the Lachin corridor.

In an apparent protest against the government's latest proposal to negotiate a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, MPs from the opposition Armenia Alliance and I Have Honour Alliance carried Karabakh flags to the National Assembly building on 12 April before walking out of the parliamentary session.

Representatives from both parties declared that they will boycott parliamentary meetings this week in favour of visiting border communities in Armenia and villages and towns in the Karabakh region.

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