Gurgen Nersisyan Appointed New State Minister of Artsakh Following Ruben Vardanyan’s Exit

On March 1, President of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Arayik Harutyunyan

introduced Gurgen Nersisyan, the newly-appointed State Minister of the Artsakh Republic during a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

In his speech, President Harutyunyan noted that the new State Minister will have broad powers, all ministries will operate under his coordination, except for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Internal Affairs, and he will have the freedom to develop and conduct personnel policy within the scope of his jurisdiction. The chairmanship of the Boards of Trustees of the Artsakh Investment Fund and the Village and Agriculture Support Fund will also be transferred to Gurgen Nersisyan.

"Once again, I want to emphasize that regardless of the difficulties and various pressures, we will remain loyal to the ideas of the Artsakh Movement and there will be no step back from the path of independence. I want to declare with all responsibility that any integration process with Azerbaijan is excluded. However, this does not mean that we will avoid contacts to solve problems of an infrastructural and humanitarian nature. And for the negotiations on the settlement of the conflict, as I stated in my message of February 23, it is necessary to ensure certain conditions and an international format," the President said.

Nersisyan is replacing diasporan Armenian Ruben Vardanyan