Azerbaijan’s Response to the Stepanakert Protest: Tatevik Hayrapetyan

Former MP and Azerbaijani expert Tatevik Hayrapetyan writes on her Telegram page: “The first reactions from the Azerbaijani side regarding the Stepanakert protest are as follows: ‘Ruben Vardanyan has threatened that if the teachers and doctors do not come, they will be fired. He has scared the students. He distributed 30 to 40 dollars to each participant, and provided free gasoline. Those present in the Karabakh army were brought to the protest, and so on.’

During the protest on October 31, it was said that Vardanyan brought people from Armenia and also distributed gasoline. Now they cannot say that because they have blockaded Artsakh. As I understand, about 60,000 people participated in today’s rally, which has made it more populous than the rally in October. This was truly a message primarily to Azerbaijan. I am confident that this rally will be discussed for a long time.”