Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan has had one of his hardest days yet, he wrote on his Facebook page.
“Yes, although we were able to save a part of the Homeland and thousands of lives, we have suffered great human and territorial losses, as evidenced once again by the bodies of some 150 Armenian servicemen recovered from Shushi’s fortifications these days, each one the lamp of a hearth and of the entire Homeland. Hundreds of bodies still lie on the battlefields, keeping their relatives and the whole people in uncertainty and pain. These days I am devoting much of my time to the relatives of the fallen and the missing, comforting them in their grief and jointly searching for our martyred brothers.
Alongside the fulfilment of that moral duty, we face the task of rapidly raising the guarantees of the Homeland’s security and of devoting long and arduous efforts to the vital work of Artsakh’s and the Armenian people’s post-war reconstruction. Of course, there are also other complex external and internal challenges, but above all I am troubled by the serious dangers threatening the internal stability and solidarity of the Mother Homeland.
Taking into account the necessity of our national and state solidarity and unity in this gravest of periods, as well as my obligation not to stand aside from the resolution of pan-Armenian questions of decisive importance, I express my deep concern over the intolerant and violence-based tendencies manifesting themselves in the Republic of Armenia.
Therefore, I most strongly urge all forces and individuals involved in the Republic of Armenia’s internal political processes to show high national and state-mindedness and prudence, and to keep the Homeland away from such upheavals as could, in this situation, become the grave-digger of Armenian statehood. I expect and demand of everyone that internal disagreements be settled through civilised dialogue and exclusively by constitutional means, so that we may be able to lead the Homeland along a path of stable and lasting development.
In this context, a decision has been taken to intensify political consultations in Artsakh with all forces and figures, in order to discuss both the post-war reconstruction of Artsakh and the reform of the system of state governance, and the most important questions of the pan-Armenian agenda. I hope that it will prove possible to foster the same atmosphere of dialogue in the Republic of Armenia as well,” he wrote.
