David Ishkhanian, a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a minority group in the 32-member Karabakh parliament, was installed to the top legislative post by a secret ballot of 22 to 9 on Monday, nine days after former speaker Artur Tovmasian announced his resignation.
The ruling Free Homeland – United Civil Bloc faction, of which Tovmasian was a member, denied any political motives behind his resignation, saying that it was his personal decision driven by “health matters.”
Tovmasian himself acknowledged that it was his personal decision, but stressed that despite his resignation he remained committed to the cause of self-determination of the region that proclaimed its independence from Azerbaijan in 1991.
The change in Nagorno-Karabakh’s main political body comes amid a continuing blockade of the region by Azerbaijan that has installed a checkpoint at the Lachin corridor connecting it with Armenia and effectively blocked all cargoes coming to Nagorno-Karabakh from there.
Azerbaijan’s cutting off the transport link between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia and thus tightening its grip on the region that it considers to be part of its sovereign territory is the latest in a series of similar steps that Baku has taken since the Armenian defeat in a war three years ago.
Stepanakert and Yerevan insist that the Lachin corridor must remain under the control of Russian peacekeepers that were deployed in the region following a Moscow-brokered ceasefire agreement that put an end to six weeks of fierce fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020.
The current blockade has also revealed some growing differences between the ethnic Armenian leadership in Stepanakert and the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Armenia. In particular, Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian government has repeatedly cautioned Pashinian against questioning the region’s self-determination by recognizing it as part of Azerbaijan – a condition that Baku puts forward for a peace treaty to be signed with Armenia.
Incidentally, Dashnaktsutyun is also in opposition to Pashinian in Armenia and demands that the current Armenian government refuse to pursue a policy that would jeopardize Nagorno-Karabakh’s self-determination.
Metakse Hakobian, a member of the Karabakh parliament’s opposition Justice faction who said she had voted for Ishkhanian’s candidacy, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the oppositionist’s nomination for the post was a “cunning move” on the part of Nagorno-Karabakh’s President Arayik Harutiunian.
“In the hopeless situation in which he [Harutiunian] has found himself in now and which he is no longer able to cope with, he also considers this as a lifeline, thinking that over time there will emerge a structure, a person who will be able to more confidently oppose the authorities in Armenia. This is a cunning move, because Arayik Harutyunyan has never done anything for the good of the state or based on the interests of the state,” the opposition lawmaker claimed.
Hakobian said that the Justice faction voted for Ishkhanian’s candidacy and welcomes his election because it hopes that a parliament speaker representing Dashnaktsutyun “will be able to act more independently and turn the Nagorno-Karabakh parliament into a separate decision-making political entity.”
At the same time, Hakobian claimed that an opposition candidate’s election as parliament speaker could also be designed by Harutiunian as a step to split the local opposition, something that she said the authorities would not be able to achieve.
Meanwhile, Marcel Petrosian, who heads the second largest faction in Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament, United Homeland, which is linked with former secretary of the region’s Security Council Samvel Babayan, said that they voted against the candidacy of Ishkhanian because the ruling faction did not consult them before his nomination.
“That’s not how things are done. In fact, it turns out that they have brought the opposition to power in a roundabout way,” he said.
Attempts by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service to contact the leader of the Nagorno-Karabakh parliament’s pro-government Free Homeland – United Civil Bloc faction during the day were unsuccessful.
It emerged later that Harutiunian and two former Karabakh presidents Arkady Ghukasian and Bako Sahakian had approached Dashnaktsutyun with an offer to have Ishkhanian elected parliament speaker in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Gegham Manukian, a Dashnak lawmaker in the Armenian parliament, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that “after long discussions the party gave its consent, considering the crucial moment for Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh – ed.].”
Manukian made it clear, however, that the Dashnak representative would be free to resign in case of differences with Nagorno-Karabakh’s government on key issues.
Meanwhile, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonian congratulated Ishkhanian on the election as Nagorno-Karabakh’s parliament speaker in a telephone conversation reported by the press office of Armenia’s National Assembly today.