The former Foreign Minister of Armenia, Vardan Oskanyan, spoke live on Facebook about the sentiments surrounding the decree signed by the Artsakh president and the closure of the Artsakh issue. “For me, the case of Artsakh is not closed and cannot be completed. But this is a separate topic. It has always been, and already today, we hear more often about shifting the blame, putting it on different people. But there is one truth, a general truth, which is this. What happens during a government is the responsibility of the same government.
It is so; it is a fact, and there is no way to avoid it. But this fact is more substantiated when you already see and remember the obvious mistakes made by this government. What happened in Artsakh, this great tragedy that befell our people, has one person responsible and one culprit. It is Nikol Pashinyan and his small group that all together brought this great tragedy to our people. The wound is still fresh; the blow is still new. We will feel the pains of this, its depth, its impact on the people, and the psychology over time. Indeed, if Nikol Pashinyan were a skilled leader, we would not be in this situation today. Since 2018, his consistent, continuous moves have led to a significant war. If he hadn’t made a mistake in those days, today, we would have a complete Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast with Shushi and the rest. Yes, we would have. But he was wrong, and we lost Shush Hadrut in the war. If he had remained faithful to the essence, spirit, and context of that statement after the signing, had not deviated from it, had not gone in other directions, not played games, not made promises to different places, believe me, today we would have Karabakh through the Lachin Corridor, without Shushi and Hadrut that we lost in the war as a result. But we would have the rest. He also made a second fatal mistake. If he had not recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan in Prague today, we would still have Karabakh in the same corridor without Shushi and Hadrut.
And we would have supporters in the international community. After the war, France, Russia, and the United States all said that it was unacceptable to resolve the issue by military means, that this issue was not closed, and that the status issue still had to be discussed. But Pashinyan didn’t hear. He went in a different direction. Indeed, his wrong steps led to today’s great disaster. This is the responsibility of one person and his narrow group to decide.
Yes, Pashinyan went against historical patterns with his mistakes. In the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, historical patterns were in our favor. Before the war, definitely, they were still in our favor after the war. I often hear the point of view that for 30 years, we were told that Artsakh could not be part of Azerbaijan. I want to throw in the towel on those people now. If those people, anyone, from 1998, even until 2020, show me a statement by the head of any serious country that says Artsakh is part of Azerbaijan or the Artsakh issue should be resolved within the framework of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, I will apologize to all of you. There is no such thing. Historical patterns were in our favor.
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The Madrid document is a witness, where the USA, France, and Russia unequivocally said that we see the solution to the issue so that the people of Nagorno Karabakh should decide their fate through a referendum. That has been the historical pattern.
Pashinyan did not contribute to the historical pattern harmful to us with his mistakes. Pashinyan made such big mistakes that he turned that historical pattern upside down for us in the matter of Artsakh, and we are in this situation today,” said Vardan Oskanyan.
Ashot HAKOBYAN
