“The Civil Contract political party received the mandate to open the period of peaceful development for Armenia and Artsakh during the 2021 snap parliamentary elections. We received the mandate from the citizens of the Republic of Armenia,” Nikol Pashinyan said during the most recent session of government.
To be honest, it seems to me that the acting Prime Minister was modest in this case. Citizens who voted for the government gave Pashinyan a mandate to do what he was planning, and to carry out, first and foremost, Russia’s will, and in an indirect manner, Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s. Why do I feel this way? Because those citizens agreed with the actions carried out by the government against Armenia and Artsakh. After all that, Civil Contract received the carte-blanche to do whatever they wanted, even including Armenia in another country’s borders. It doesn’t matter- even if something bad happens, the “former regime” will be to blame. That is not an exaggeration; a villager deprived of irrigation water assured me that “Kocharyan called and told them to turn off the water.”
But, let’s assume that this government truly has the mandate for Artsakh’s peaceful development. The question arises of which Artsakh? The Republic of Artsakh that existed until the war in 2020, the former NKAO, or the 3.3 thousand square km territory that remained from Artsakh and that exists solely due to the Russian peacekeepers? It’s clear that Pashinyan’s electorate, which believes in every myth he creates, does not care. But let’s agree that this is a meaningful question from the point of view of the state’s future.
The government must honestly admit that it tried to keep the remainder of Artsakh Armenian by ensuring people’s security through the Russian peacekeepers. It must “be brave” enough to say that we should pull away from the rest. I reiterate, the majority of citizens will not care about that confession, but thinkers in Armenia, as well as the international community, will have more clarity on what our government wants. Or, if the situation is even worse, Pashinyan must say that it is not possible to keep the remainder of Artsakh, and the only way to maintain Armenia’s “peaceful development” is to recognize “Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity” (which I doubt, by the way).
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In other words, there should be some clarity about the future. Not words covered in smoke.
Aram Abrahamyan
