As part of COP17, the application by the Artsakh Union to present issues concerning the people of Artsakh and biodiversity was rejected. According to the organisation’s president, Artak Beglaryan, they were not given a pavilion in the Green Zone, and no reason for the rejection was provided. Ashot Sargsyan, a member of the first and second convocations of the Artsakh Republic’s parliament, said that this decision deprived Armenians of Artsakh of the opportunity to speak on the international stage about their rights and status as an Indigenous people. Meanwhile, the issues facing other Indigenous peoples and local communities were presented at COP17. According to Ashot Sargsyan, the Armenian authorities have a duty to draw the international community’s attention to the rights of Armenians of Artsakh and the question of their Indigenous status. He also stressed the need for the active work of Artsakh’s legitimate institutions, noting that the international community remains interested in issues concerning Artsakh and its Armenian population. The post “It is absurd. How can an ethnic people be denied a platform? The authorities are diverting attention from two important issues”: Ashot Sargsyan first appeared on Western Armenia TV .