The Parliament of Artsakh on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that would ban foreign companies and organizations from any activity on territories currently under occupation by Azerbaijan without the consent of the Artsakh government. The bill also amended the Artsakh Civil Code to include the provision.
Introduced by the five factions represented in the Artsakh National Assembly, the bill is an effort to heighten awareness of the international community that as a restful of the aggressive war waged on Artsakh by Azerbaijan in 2020, the territories that were captured by Azerbaijan are now being labeled as “occupied.” The measure also requires permission from Artsakh authorities by foreign companies if they plan to engage in any activity on the said occupied territories.
The head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation faction, Artur Mosiyan presented the bill and it was passed following the first reading.
“This law is necessary and even belated,” said Mosiyan said when the bill was placed on the parliament’s agenda on February 1.
“With the help of Turkey and international terrorist organizations Azerbaijan started a war and occupied a large part of the Artsakh Republic. We need to talk about the legal status of those territories, the rights of our compatriots, be it their right to life or their right to property,” explained Mosiyan.
The co-author of the bill, Davit Galsyan who heads the parliament’s Justice faction told Armenpress on Wednesday that the measure is also a response to the Turkey-Azerbaijan “Shushi Agreement” signed by the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey when the latter visited occupied Shushi in June.
That agreement is seen as a full throttle attack on the sovereignty of the republics of Armenia and Artsakh and a threat to self-determination. It also contains a security-military clause.
“The importance of this bill lies in the fact that we, first and foremost, declare that the territories mentioned in the bill are Armenian. And this is also a response to the ratification of the so-called ‘Shushi Declaration’ by Azerbaijan. With this initiative we are demonstrating that we own our historical and cultural values which today are being desecrated, altered, destroyed and eliminated by Azerbaijan,” Galstyan told Armenpress.
On Monday, Artsakh Foreign Minister David Babayan called the bill significant in terms of settling the Artsakh issue and clarifying the approaches on determining the international status of Artsakh.
