After coming to power in 2018, Prime Minister Pashinyan had no need to agree to Artsakh being part of Azerbaijan with the status of autonomy. It would have sufficed for him to agree to the proposal of the OSCE Minsk Group to hand over 5 of the 7 districts and, while keeping the corridors of Berdzor and Karvachar, leave the status of Nagorno-Karabakh uncertain.
Ignoramus arrogance, a poor assessment of the situation, and boundless populism prevented him from taking that path.
Moreover, consider this: since the proposer was the Minsk Group, which includes Russia, the United States, and France, these countries would have jointly, without competing with each other, tried to guarantee the implementation of the agreements. In that sense, the opportunity has been missed, and the contrast between Russia and the West, to put it mildly, creates additional problems in this matter.
But let’s assume for a moment that this option did not exist and that in 2018 it was clear to Pashinyan that Artsakh should be part of Azerbaijan as an autonomy. In that case, the Prime Minister is essentially saying, “I knew what needed to be done, but I didn’t do it because I lacked the courage.”
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As a result, we have suffered thousands of casualties, territorial losses, and security threats. In other words, it appears that Pashinyan, instead of choosing a bad solution, opted for the worst, delivering fiery speeches about the invincibility of our army and, knowing the reality, proclaiming: “Artsakh is Armenia, and that’s it.”
Even if everything is as the Prime Minister presents it, this, in my opinion, amounts to a self-confession for which, if not legal, then political responsibility must be assumed.
It is not out of the question that in a year, Pashinyan might say: “I knew there would be no 29,743 square kilometers, that I would have to give up all the enclaves, not return the territory occupied by Azerbaijan to Armenia, bring 300,000 Azerbaijanis to Armenia, open the Zangezur corridor, change the Constitution, etc., but I didn’t say it directly. I was westing time, pretending to be a buffon, and that was my failure.”
Aram Abrahamyan
