If the issue of Artsakh was a “rope” hanging around our necks—as Prime Minister Pashinyan now claims, saying that Russia used it to bind us and deprive us of sovereignty—then he should have said so seven years ago.
Back when every street stall was selling “dukhov” (“with spirit”) caps and T-shirts with “NSS” printed on them, that was precisely the time to tell the people:
“Dear compatriots, there’s a rope around our neck—Artsakh. The sooner we free ourselves from that rope, the sooner our moment of happiness will come.”
Not to sing about “our pride” and “our dignity.”
Had this “rope” talk happened back in 2018–2019, and had it been accepted by “the people,” we would have calmly closed the last page of our history, and Armenia would already have become a semi-independent state under Turkey’s protectorate. Those for whom such a status would have been perfectly fine—as long as there was kebab and khashlama—would have stayed in the “Fourth Republic.” The rest—the “non-people,” those unwilling to live de facto under Azerbaijan’s rule—would have left.
But back then, such talk seemed unacceptable. The mechanism, however, is simple, and it’s best illustrated by the famous “frog experiment”:
When you throw a frog into boiling water, it jumps out; but when you place it in cold water and slowly raise the temperature, the frog sits still—until it’s boiled alive.
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Now we face the same prospect. Yet the price of Pashinyan’s former “caution,” his so-called tactic of “not revealing his cards,” was the lives of four thousand young men.
In reality, up until 2019 we still had a chance to keep Artsakh Armenian—and it was no “rope.” It was, above all, the security guarantee of the Republic of Armenia itself.
As for Pashinyan’s belated “enlightenments,” I find them dangerous. If things continue this way, seven years from now he may well “discover” that Meghri—or perhaps the whole of Syunik—is also a “rope.”
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
