Simonyan Says He Spoke with Hikmet Hajiyev After Gandzasar Visit

YEREVAN — Armenian Security Council Secretary Alen Simonyan said he has been in regular contact with Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan, and spoke with him following Hajiyev’s recent visit to Gandzasar.

“I am in contact with Hikmet Hajiyev. He has my phone number, and I have his. We speak every couple of days. We also spoke after the visit to Gandzasar,” Simonyan told reporters.

Simonyan declined to disclose details of the telephone conversation but said he had conveyed other concerns to Hajiyev.

“I also expressed other concerns—that everything must be done to ensure that incidents like these do not suddenly interfere with the process,” Simonyan said.

Asked whether Armenia’s Security Council planned to formally respond to Hajiyev, Simonyan said Armenia had already made its position clear and that not every statement coming from Baku necessarily required a response.

“We need to understand whether that would change anything. I could make a harsh statement right now and respond in some way, and we could all feel good for 15 minutes, but by doing so I could harm the negotiations. We have already said that peace must be treated with care, and this is precisely a case in which that care must be demonstrated,” Simonyan said.

On September 11–12, dozens of diplomats accredited in Azerbaijan visited depopulated Nagorno-Karabakh accompanied by Hajiyev.

During the visit, Hajiyev presented Armenian historical and cultural monuments, including Gandzasar and Dadivank monasteries, to the diplomats as part of the Christian heritage of “ancient Caucasian Albania.”

At an exhibition hall at Gandzasar, Hajiyev also showed the diplomats what were presented as reproductions of ancient Armenian manuscripts. When he opened the manuscript replicas, however, the pages shown were blank, prompting laughter among some of the officials present.