Ex-official rejects rumors he abandoned Karabakh during war

PanARMENIAN.Net - The office of the United Motherland party in Nagorno-Karabakh has issued a statement on behalf of chairman of the party Samvel Babayan, in which the latter weighs in on rumors alleging that he left Artsakh (Karabakh) during the war in the fall of 2020.

Babayan, who was the Secretary of the Security Council back then, described the rumors as slanderous.

The politician revealed that he was sent on a special assignment from the President of Karabakh to Yerevan, Armenia's capital, on November 6, 2020. According to him, details about the purpose and results of the trip cannot be published due to the secrecy of the matter.

"The next day, on November 7, the small number of people remaining in Stepanakert were evacuated, and on November 9 the trilateral statement known to the Armenian side was signed on extremely unfavorable conditions," Babayan said.

"When I learned about the statement, as I said earlier, I tried to prevent it, but the document had already been signed. Powerless to change the course of developments as Secretary of the Security Council, I no longer found it expedient to continue to occupy this high-profile but empty position."

Given the fact that the law enforcement agencies did not take the actions prescribed by law, based on information about my unauthorized departure from Artsakh, as a high-ranking official of Artsakh, during the days of the war, I appeal to the

Babayan then demanded that the Prosecutor's Office in Karabakh take the necessary measures to reveal the truth with the help of criminal law assessment.