By Harut Sassounian
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week continued to advocate for his policy of appeasement towards Azerbaijan, suggesting that Armenians rather enjoy their lives than engage in eternal struggles.
Addressing the leaders of his political party, Civil Contract, on June 23, Pashinyan rhetorically asked: “Can we perceive the state as a means to make the well-being of and happiness of the people living here possible and not as a springboard, an outpost, for some eternal struggle? …Is the Republic of Armenia an instrument of eternal struggle or is the Republic of Armenia an instrument of living?”
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This is the rosy promise that Pashinyan made to the people to come to power in 2018. He deceived the Armenian public by pledging to bring them peace and higher income. We now see that he brought nothing but death and misery to the nation after sacrificing thousands of soldiers, the entire territory of Artsakh, and parts of the Republic of Armenia. Contradicting his own criticisms of the previous regimes for increasing the national debt, he more than doubled it by borrowing billions of dollars from international financial institutions, thus placing a huge burden on future Armenian generations.
Pashinyan’s only accomplishment is creating a luxurious life for his own family by living in a government mansion, being driven in expensive cars, flying around the world in a luxurious government jet, and staying in five-star hotels in various capitals. In contrast, he came to the office on a bicycle six years ago.
In his June 23 remarks, Pashinyan fabricated two non-existent ‘challenges and threats’ that supposedly face the Armenian nations. He said:
1) “There are large countries, international big players, who tell us: ‘ …You are not really a living people; you are a suffering people. You have to suffer, you have to migrate, be slaughtered, have to struggle, and through all that, come and beg for salvation from me, and I have to come and save you.’”
2) Pashinyan said that the second challenge came from “Azerbaijan, especially Azerbaijan, whose words, to put it very briefly, are as follows: ‘You did not let me live for 30 years, I won’t let you live either, and I will take revenge on you.’”
Pashinyan provided in the above two defeatist statements the best evidence that he is not a competent leader which necessitates his immediate resignation, before he destroys the homeland.
First of all, no one in the world has said that Armenians must suffer. This is fake news. The only person that Armenians need to be saved from is Pashinyan. If Armenians want to continue their existence as a nation, they must replace Pashinyan as soon as possible with a more capable leader who could defend Armenia’s interests while ensuring the people’s proper living standards. These two goals are not mutually exclusive.
Secondly, why is Pashinyan acting as if he is the spokesman for Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev? Each time Pashinyan opens his mouth, one has distinct the impression that Aliyev is not sitting in Baku, but in Yerevan on the Armenian Prime Minister’s chair! Azerbaijanis did not suffer for 30 years. They lived perfectly well earning billions of dollars from exporting their oil and gas around the world, building multiple sky scrapers in Baku, and hosting prestigious international events and conferences. Even more astonishingly, since Pashinyan says that Aliyev is intent on seeking revenge from Armenia, why is he then begging Azerbaijan to sign a peace treaty? Will a piece of paper deter Aliyev from his fixation on seeking revenge from Armenia?
As if these absurd statements were not sufficient, Pashinyan spoke about “the reasons why ‘the opposition movement,’ led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, ‘has waned.’ Besides using outrageous lies to disparage the high-ranking clergyman, Pashinyan and his cohorts constantly repeat the fake notion that the opposition movement has failed. If the movement had really failed, why does Pashinyan keep talking about it? The truth is that Pashinyan and his followers are seriously worried about the Archbishop’s activities and his numerous followers. The regime’s concern is justified because for the first time in six years, one man has been able to unite the entire opposition field under one umbrella, something no one else has been able to accomplish until now!
By making such absurd statements, Pashinyan is simply trying to discourage his party members from giving up, like rats leaving a sinking ship. It is no secret that his followers in the Parliament and government are very worried about their jobs and incomes if the opposition succeeds in toppling the government. Furthermore, Pashinyan and his supporters seriously fear that they will be arrested and charged with corruption, abuse of power, violating the laws of the Republic of Armenia, and handing over Artsakh and the territories of the Republic of Armenia to Azerbaijan.
In recent days, Archbishop Galstanyan started to travel outside of Yerevan to gain supporters in other parts of the country. The Archbishop must form opposition groups in all villages and cities throughout Armenia to expand the movement beyond Yerevan, making it national in scope. The second benefit of spreading the protests throughout the country is to prevent Pashinyan from being able to bring thousands of policemen from all over the country to Yerevan to suppress the opposition protests. If there are simultaneous protests in all regions of Armenia on the same day, the police will be forced to remain in their local areas, thereby making it impossible for them to come to Yerevan in large numbers to attack the protesters.
Finally, since the opposition movement is also supported by Armenians in the Diaspora, the Archbishop must appoint his movement’s representatives in various countries so it becomes a pan-Armenian worldwide movement rather than being limited to just Yerevan or Armenia.