The Vice President of the Republican Party of Armenia, Armen Ashotyan, said at the Hayeli press club that the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev had revealed in mid-September some of Nikol Pashinyan’s pleas from 2018 to not shoot at the border. According to Armen Ashotyan, Pashinyan’s pleas to Aliyev at the time were based on the condition that the border would be calm so he could solve the problems of political opponents inside Armenia. Armenia was about to hold snap elections at the time, and, according to Armen Ashotyan, “Nikol Pashinyan sold Armenia’s domestic political life and democracy through the elevator agreement in Dushanbe, as well as in the Vienna and St. Petersburg agreements, in order to reproduce his power.”
At the time, according to Ashotyan, the war was inevitable for many. “The fact that Nikol Pashinyan rising to power in 2018 was based on the Artsakh issue was evident to us from day one. During the session of parliament on May 1, 2018, I announced that I would not vote for Armenia’s destruction or the last Prime Minister of Armenia. Alas, those predictions were correct. The other predictions were also correct. The time for war had come, and Nikol Pashinyan brought upon us a war this size with all of its pain, severity, and duration through his deliberate mistakes in negotiations, military, foreign policy, and security.”
Ashotyan remembered Nikol Pashinyan’s policies over the past 2.5 years, which, in his opinion, ‘destroyed Armenia’s negotiating positions.’ Armen Ashotyan said that Nikol Pashinyan invited Turkey to the region with his policies. He said that Nikol Pashinyan did not say anything negative toward Turkey in his April 24th message. He did not condemn genocide denial, nor did he speak about international genocide recognition from foreign podiums, including in the UN. Even more, he blamed the genocide entirely on the Ottoman Empire “suggesting that this happened in the past.” The Speaker of the National Assembly, Ararat Mirzoyan, did not speak about the genocide from these international podiums either. Therefore, Armen Ashotyan believes that this government’s policies had their goals.
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“Nikol Pashinyan invited Turkey to the region. In other words, Turkey’s ticket to the Artsakh War was sold by Nikol Pashinyan as he did everything he could to push Russia out of the South Caucasus,” Armen Ashotyan believes, adding that Nikol Pashinyan is a political traitor, at the very least, and an independent body will investigate the circumstances of that after a change of government takes place.
Nelly Grigoryan
