The council of the Lazarian club issued a statement regarding banning Russian parliamentarian Konstantin Zatulin from entering Armenia.

“We do not need to prove that Konstantin Zatulin is a great friend of Armenia and an active supporter of friendship between the Russian and Armenian peoples, who has never changed his beliefs. All Armenians in the world know about that, without exaggeration. It was Zaatulin who got Russia to recognize the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, based on his report already in 1995. The first State Duma of Russia adopted such a decision. For many years, his speeches in defense of the rights of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians influenced the formation of public opinion in Russia, and his visits to the Republic of Artsakh and his support for Artsakh caused him to be invited to neighboring Azerbaijan in 2010 and to be declared an undesirable person,” the statement said.

It is noted that the ban on Zatulin’s entry to Armenia was announced in response to the invitation sent by him to the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Deputy Speaker, and Foreign Minister to speak at the meeting of the Club on October 28.

“It is unprecedented (although there has not been an entry ban for Russian parliamentarians so far) that the letter is signed by an official of the National Assembly. Everything is done in such a way that the people at the top are spared from this shameful decision, despite the fact that Zatulin’s ban was announced by Nikol Pashinyan’s “family” newspaper “Haykakan Zhamanak”. If there were still some doubts, now it is quite obvious that by trying to disrupt the discussion of Russian-Armenian relations, so that the voice of the Russian participants of the Lazarian Club cannot be heard in Armenia, the authorities of the Republic are on the way to betray the relations with Russia. Which is not surprising, considering that the Armenian authorities have already adopted the way of betraying the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the statement reads.

At the end of the statement, it is mentioned that the meeting of the Club will take place as it was announced, on the topic announced on October 28: “Historical past and present of Russian-Armenian relations”.