What Should Follow PM Pashinyan’s Catastrophic Confessions?

Given the above two solid arguments that establish the right of Artsakh Armenians for their independence from Azerbaidjan, the only possible reason why 30 years after 1991 Artsakh still faces controversy on this issue, and that Pashinyan goes so far as to confess publicly that Artsakh has no choice but to remain within Azerbaijan, is the diplomatic impotency of his administration along with the equal incapacity of the previous administrations. The latter failed to resolve this issue over several decades.

In pronouncing this verdict, one has to make sure to recognize that in retrospect, the first president of Armenia, Levon Der Bedrossian, is given credit for his more realistic approach. In 1998 he insisted that Artsakh had to negotiate and permanently settle its independent status by giving up those territories that were occupied just for strategic security but did not belong in fact to modern Armenian Karabakh. Indeed, in retrospect, Der Bedrossian was right. The administrations that followed ought to have pursued a pragmatic diplomatic policy. Armenia should not only have consolidated its legitimate territorial gains but also should have quietly built a strong and modern army as the solid guarantor of its independence. Instead, there has been singing, dancing and celebrating Artsakh with hollow “genats”s, drinking alcohol while the army was in disarray.

In conclusion, Armenians all over the world rightly condemn the weakness and incapacity of the current prime minister and of his administration to defend the legitimate rights of the heroic people of Artsakh.

Armenia and Artsakh need today a leadership capable of conducting intelligently and aggressively the existential – and legally well-justified – diplomatic war for Artsakh. The two legal arguments enumerated above must be voiced loudly and clearly in every relevant forum in the world. It is better late than never. It must start certainly from the National Assembly of Armenia, as well as in the international media. Pashinyan’s speech must be declared null and invalid.

To defend our rights, we need the Armenian equivalent of the Ukrainian Zelenskyy who, day and night, loudly demands the support of every nation on the planet in his fight for the legitimate independence of his country, instead of capitulating like Armenia’s leader. He does this even though he is facing the overwhelming brutal force of a world power. If such leadership will not manifest itself promptly in Armenia, then it will need to be created by mobilizing all Armenians, from Artsakh to Armenia and the diaspora.

Armenians must defend their rights and win. Any weakness and failure in this Artsakh war will certainly lead to a next phase, to nibbling at the present territories of Armenia itself, until that too will disappear. Aliyev has announced more than once that Yerevan belongs to him. So far, he has certainly obtained what he asked for, because we allowed him to do so.

Fellow Armenians, yes indeed, “Artsakh is Armenian, Արցախը մերն է.” The patriotic spirit of the 1988 “Artsakhyan Sharjoum” must be revived again, now!