Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent statements are meaningless attempts to justify himself before history. This opinion was expressed by Tatul Hakobyan, founder of the “Ani” Research Center, commenting on Pashinyan’s remark that the Karabakh issue was “a bomb under Armenia’s statehood.”
According to Hakobyan, Moscow has indeed always sought to use the conflict to influence both Armenia and Azerbaijan — that is a fact. However, the prime minister’s claims that the issue was “a noose around Armenia’s neck,” and that “we didn’t lose Artsakh, we ensured the independence of Armenia,” are, in his words, futile attempts to justify himself before history.
“Mr. Pashinyan and his team invent such narratives to soften their defeat and to delay the inevitable judgment of history. Just two days ago, a member of parliament wrote under one of my Facebook posts — politely, but in essence saying: ‘What more do you want from us, Mr. Hakobyan? We’ve already apologized.’ So you bring this disaster upon the country and think a single apology makes it all go away? The loss of Kars in 1920 is still thrown in the face of traditional parties in the diaspora, even after a hundred years and several generations — and no one has forgotten it. And now — 4,000 dead, tens of thousands wounded, such a humiliating defeat — how can that be forgotten so easily?” Hakobyan said.
He also addressed Pashinyan’s argument that if earlier there had been better settlement options, then the previous authorities were obligated to implement them — and if they didn’t, they must either have been traitors or found it impossible.
“Neither the statements of the first president, nor those of our other leaders, nor those of Pashinyan are entirely true or entirely false. There is a grain of rationality in all of them. When Serzh Sargsyan, in his latest interview, blames Pashinyan for not accepting the 2019 plan, one must ask: excuse me, Mr. Sargsyan, but why didn’t you adopt those plans over ten years? You might say that Azerbaijan rejected them, but who says Azerbaijan wouldn’t have rejected the new ones as well? It’s easy to accuse those in power, but these matters are never that clear-cut,” the analyst concluded.