By Dr. Arshavir Gundjian
Special to the Mirror-Spectator
On the 12th of May, 250 regular Azerbaijani army soldiers just strolled 3.5 kms past the borders of Syunik province onto the territory of the Republic of Armenia, as freely as regular tourists. They did not encounter any resistance. Apparently that number has now increased and has reached the thousand mark. It appears that there is nothing to prevent the same from occurring at the Armenian borders at Tavush as well as near the shores of Lake Sevan. What is next? Where else will it happen? Can they go all the way to Yerevan?
The present-day authorities in Armenia keep justifying the absence of any intervention by the Armenian army, arguing that this could be considered a violation by Armenia of that nefarious November 9 agreement, and consequently may lead to the restart of hostilities for which Armenia is not prepared.
In the meantime, the Armenian civilian population in the border regions is outraged. It feels abandoned, protests, searches alternatives for self-defense and is in a state of deep crisis. This unacceptable and intolerable tension leads every day to an increasingly more explosive situation, wherein the Armenian civil population is left in an unfair state of helplessness. Then an inevitable question begs an answer: Facing this threatening existential crisis, where are Armenians living in Armenia and beyond expected to find sources to support self-defense?
The perspective for a promising political turnaround from the forthcoming elections is unfortunately rapidly losing any likelihood. In the past six months period we all expected that beyond the two sworn enemies, Pashinyan and Kocharyan, with their faithful followers, new groups and individuals among the population of Armenia would emerge, with fresh political, diplomatic, economic, and military strategic ideas, thus providing Armenia’s electorate the option of electing to the helm of the country a new stable and capable government. Had such a strong and reliable third option turned up, an even broader coalition could have coalesced around it. However, to this date, it has not materialized, by now its formation seems to be quite unlikely.