Yesterday, the parliament—where the Civil Contract party (ՔՊ) holds a constitutional majority—marked the birthday of Vazgen Sargsyan with applause, recalling the man who played a decisive role in the liberation of Artsakh. Naturally, he deserves to be honored. But in the case of ՔՊ, this creates a sense of cognitive dissonance.
Does ՔՊ consider that war—of which Vazgen Sargsyan is regarded as one of the heroes—justified? Or do they believe, as they sometimes suggest, that it was a conflict unleashed by the Russians with the aim of “putting a rope around Armenia’s neck”?
If ՔՊ agrees with Ilham Aliyev that the political and military leaders of Artsakh—sentenced to life imprisonment or 20 years—are worse than German Nazis, and that the military court in Baku was carrying out a “Nuremberg trial” (at least, I have not heard any disagreement from ՔՊ representatives), then they must also be ready to extend that assessment to Vazgen Sargsyan.
In that case, whom exactly are they honoring—an “occupier” who had seized Artsakh, which Azerbaijan considers an “integral part” of its territory?
Read also
Vazgen Sargsyan undoubtedly made many mistakes, as did Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Vano Siradeghyan, and all the historical figures of that period. (It would be worth discussing those mistakes as well—but not now.) Yet, in my view, their mistakes were not related to the Artsakh movement or to the first Karabakh war.
The question is this: are we prepared to renounce that entire period, to paint it entirely in black, simply so that we do not appear as a “red rag” to some of our neighbors?
This is not an abstract question today, when a major war has erupted in our region. Suppose that in 2022 the authorities in Ukraine—or the current leadership of Iran—had behaved the way Armenia’s authorities are behaving now, saying: “Yes, we made a mistake by aspiring to join the EU and NATO,” or “Yes, it was a fatal error to carry out the Islamic Revolution in 1979.” Would the aggressors’ hearts have softened? Would they then have refrained from any further encroachments against those countries?
I believe the opposite would have happened: the aggressors would only have become more emboldened—and would have swallowed those countries with even greater appetite.
I will not repeat the well-known saying about ending up with both war and disgrace.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
