The meeting took place on the sidelines of a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). It was revealed late on Thursday by Sargis Khandanian, the head of the Armenian parliamentary delegation at the assembly. The Turkish side released no statements on the meeting.
Khandanian said the two sides discussed efforts to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations and stressed the importance of “quick unblocking of roads and other infrastructure in the region.” Footage publicized by him shows that Lilit Galstian, the sole opposition member of the Armenian delegation, did not attend the meeting.
Galstian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that she boycotted it.
“I don’t know who initiated the meeting,” she said. “I was informed about the meeting and I refused [to attend it.] I expressed my view about both genocidal, aggressor countries — Turkey and Azerbaijan — in my speeches today and yesterday and using all other possible OSCE platforms.”
Galstian is affiliated with the opposition Hayastan alliance and one of its main components: the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party.
Armenia – Opposition deputy Lilit Galstian attends a session of the Armenian parliament.
Hayastan and especially Dashnaktsutyun have been very critical of Turkish-Armenian normalization talks held in the last few years. Their leaders say that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is willing to make unilateral concessions to Turkey, including on the issue of the 1915 Armenian genocide, as part of that process.
Ankara has made clear that the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border is contingent on a resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict acceptable to Baku. Turkish leaders have endorsed Azerbaijani preconditions for such a settlement.
Galstian’s speech at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly delivered on Thursday was fully devoted to the ongoing trials of eight former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh and other Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan. She urged the assembly to send observers to Baku to monitor the trials condemned by her as a travesty of justice.
Other members of the Armenian delegation, who represent Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, did not mention the issue in their speeches. They spoke instead about the Armenian government’s efforts to reach a peace deal with Azerbaijan.
Galstian deplored their silence about the Armenian prisoners remaining in Azerbaijan. “This is completely part of [Armenian] government policy,” she said.
