When former Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian gives an interview or speech, the “arguments” that have been repeated for five years are heard from the ruling camp: “What about you, what about your time..”. It is a universal response for CCs (Civil Contract members) to criticism. There is no content in such “arguments”; if someone made a mistake or even committed a crime 10 or 20 years ago, it does not mean it is possible to justify one’s shameful failures in such a way.
But when it comes to Oskanian, Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters unwittingly join the government’s propaganda. I explain this with their being focused on the 1998 palace coup.
It is evident to me that at the beginning of 1998, Robert Kocharian, Vazgen Sargsyan, and Serzh Sargsyan, based on their “ruling” interests, disrupted the possible peaceful settlement of the Artsakh problem. I think it is also a fact that from 1998-2008, Armenian diplomacy, obsessed with “victory” rhetoric, did not make enough efforts to achieve peace. But agree, there is a vast difference between not solving the problem and provoking a war with irresponsible steps and insane statements.
Oskanian is certainly not to blame for the attitude of today’s government, which before the war was “boyish,” to say the least, and after the defeat, again, to put it mildly, lacked the will. I have significant reservations about his activity and even more about the proposal to “give the negotiation process to him,”
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However, Oskanian has not been the Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2008, and the war started 12 years after that, under this government. Therefore, the main culprit of the defeat, thousands of victims, and territorial losses is Pashinyan and his regime. Expressing a different position is an attempt to justify the culprits of the disaster.
It also gives the right to the current authorities to say: “Well, we are doing almost the same thing that Ter-Petrosyan was trying to do.” Which (again, let’s find a suitable word) is far from the truth.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
