By Van Lapoyan
The purpose of this article is to try to find out what went wrong and why. I am sure that more investigations in the future will be required to have a thorough and detailed understanding of what happened. However, for the time being, it is up to us to self-assess, reflect and ask ourselves, given the circumstances Armenia finds itself today, what kind of options Armenians have to secure Armenia’s survival in the future.
This Trilateral Agreement between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia was very difficult to accept for the Armenians in Armenia and all over the world, especially for those who have lost their loved ones in the combat and also for the families who ended up losing their home, their land and their homeland.
All of the opposition parties in Armenia, and most of the Armenians in the Diaspora, including His Holiness Aram I Catholicos of Cilicia have refused the trilateral agreement. Of course, everybody wanted a better outcome but did the Armenians have a better alternative considering they were the defeated army? Are we forgetting that?
For three decades, Armenians considered Nagorno Karabakh, including the seven Azeri-occupied regions, a part of Armenia where 146,000 Armenians lived in an area of 12,600 square kilometers. A real luxury of space. And for 26 years, no country in the world recognized Artsakh as a sovereign state — including Armenia and Russia.
The non-resolution of the conflict was a heavy economic burden on Armenia and Karabakh. It was imperative to find a solution to the Artsakh question. But returning occupied land for peace was not acceptable to the Armenian public in general and for Artsakh people in particular.