U.S. President Donald Trump is not mistaken: Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan are indeed friends. They are united not only by shared plans concerning Armenia and the Armenian people, but also by a common post-Soviet authoritarian mindset.
Yet from the outside, this is a rather peculiar friendship. One of the friends has deprived thousands of the other’s compatriots of the right to live in their own homes, is destroying the cultural and spiritual heritage created by that people, refuses to withdraw his troops from sovereign territories under the other’s responsibility, and—while labeling those same compatriots “Nazis”—continues to hold them in captivity.
At the same time, the clearest proof of this “friendship” is that, after all this, they ended up receiving a peace prize split 50/50.
Supporters of the authorities and their propagandists respond to the acknowledgment of this national disgrace with the same refrain: “What’s the alternative? Do you want another war? Do you want thousands of casualties again?”
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First, let us remember that until 2020 it was Pashinyan himself who, through his reckless statements and inept actions, contributed to the conditions that led to war and loss of life. Why, during the first two years of his leadership, did he repeatedly travel to Artsakh, embrace the “Nazis,” and deliver fiery speeches?
All this suggests that the questions of peace and war do not genuinely concern him. Even today, if it were necessary to keep his seat, he would make such bellicose statements that even Aliyev would be taken aback. At this moment, it simply suits him to “sell” a non-existent “peace” to citizens whose minds, he believes, have already been shaped accordingly.
Second, let us assume that today a senior Armenian official were to declare that he does not consider the individuals convicted by the Baku “court” on terrorism and other serious charges to be “Nazis,” and were to publicly raise the issue of Armenian prisoners in international forums. Would that, in and of itself, truly trigger a war?
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
In the photo: the “peace-lover” and the “Nazi” before the 2020 war.
