Samvel Shahramanyan throws the gauntlet - ձեռնոց կը նետէ

Vaհe H Apelian

 

The office of the Republic of Artsakh in Armenia, courtesy Facebook

The building in the picture was the headquarter of the Republic of Artsakh in Armenia. It remains the office of the former representatives of Artsakh in Yerevan, Armenia. Altough the building is in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, bu it does not display the flag of the Republic of Armenia as an act of political defiance.

On Tuesday April 17, 2025, ahead of Artsakh’s last president Samvel Shahramnyan’s term that ends in May, the  former MPs of Artsakh in Armenia,  convened a session  and had president Samvel Shahramnyan continue his  tenure as president in response to Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party that had called the move ‘extremely unacceptable’.. 

Samvel Sharamanyan accepted to remain the president of the Republic of Artakh although on behalf of the republic, he had signed  the republic on September 2023 in Stepanakert to be formalized by January 1, 2024. In accepting to continue as the president of Artskah, Savel Shaharmanyan effectively threw the gauntlet at the present government of Armenia led by Nikol Pashinyan, and sided with the opposition leaders, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan who, like him, hail from Artsakh and who pursue unseating Nikol Pashinyan led government. Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Saroyan were leaders of Artakh liberation, while Samvel Shahramanyan was its last president. We all know that eight other Artsakh officials languish in prison in Baku.

I have followed Savel Shahramanyan as best as any Diaspora Armenian can. I have followed his election, his inaugural speech at Artsakh National Assembly, his turn about and his signing the controversial liquidation of the Republic of Armenia, his air escort by Russian forces to Armenia in September 2023, his interview on Artsakh television in Armenia, justifying his sighning of Republic of Artskah's capitulation to Azerbaijan, his meeting with the Armenian government officials claiming that he has no intention to get involved in politics in Armenia, his subsequent rescinding his own signature for the dissolution of Artsakh, claiming it was not constitutional, and since May 17, 2025 his willingness to to act as the  president of Republic of Artsakh in Armenia, the same republic he abolished, he threw  gauntlet at  the government of Armenia to have it unseated.

As far as I am concerned,  samvel shahramanian is A VERITABLE ARMENIAN KATCH NAZAR, APISOGHOM AGHA and an Odian PANCHOUN all in one. 

I have posted below in random chronological order the blogs I have written about his political “wheelin and dealin”.

1– Shahramanian: An accidental figure: (Monday November 6, 2023)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/11/an-accidental-figure.html

 

2. Samvel Shahramnayan: An Unusual meeting with Civil Contract representatives:  (November 28, 2023)

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/11/an-unusual-meeting-samvel-shahramanyan.html

 

3. Samvel Sharamanyan: One free in Yerevan and 8 imprisoned in Baku, (Thursday, January 16, 2025)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/01/one-free-in-yerevan-and-8-imprisoned-in.html

 

4. Samvel Sharamanyan: Nothing of this sort has happened in our tortured history: (Wednesday October 11, 2023)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/10/nothing-of-this-sort-has-happened-in.html

 

5. Samvel Shahramanian:  Recalling Artsakh history: Remembering Samvel Shahramanyan's inaugural speech 

(Friday January 10, 2025)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2025/01/recalling-history-remembering-samvel_10.html

 

6. Lachin Corridor: A test of wills: Lachin Corridor: 

l (Sunday, September 10, 2023)

https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/09/lachin-corridor-test-of-wills.html 

7. From Arayik Harutyunyan to Samvel Shahramanyan: What changed?: (Sunday, September 10, 2023)

 https://vhapelian.blogspot.com/2023/09/from-arayik-to-savel-what-changed.html