It is almost unbelievable, yet undeniably true. Barely four decades after the onset of the Artsakh (Karabakh) liberation struggle, the modern national liberation movement of the Armenian people, a figure has emerged who openly questions the heroic legacy of the 1988 pan-Armenian awakening and the victories that followed. According to his own conviction, “the Artsakh movement was a fatal mistake for Armenia.” Had such a statement come from the President of Azerbaijan or any other senior Azerbaijani official, it would hardly have been surprising. Yet the author of this astonishing claim is none other than the controversial politician who served two terms as prime minister of the Republic of Armenia and is now seeking a third.
As part of the election campaign officially launched on May 8, the ruling party’s candidate visited Syunik that day. Instead of presenting to the public the programmatic foundations, roadmap, and vision of the ruling “Civil Contract” party, he once again focused on his favorite subject: the “former rulers.” According to him, beginning in 1988, they led the Armenian people in the wrong direction. In Nikol Pashinyan’s view, Artsakh was never Armenian territory, and Armenians fought for it in vain or, as the incomprehensible Nikol-Anna duo has put it, “for nothing.” Naturally, such assertions lack credibility and cannot withstand serious scrutiny.
Artsakh has historically been Armenian territory, a fact recognized by the civilized world. The international community regarded Artsakh as a disputed issue only because Azerbaijan rejected that reality. Consequently, as is well known, the matter entered the international agenda: the conflict was internationalized, the OSCE Minsk Group with its three co-chairs was established, and for more than two decades it functioned precisely on that basis. Now, if Nikol Pashinyan claims that the Artsakh Movement was wrong, then the United States was wrong, France was wrong, the entire West was wrong, the Russian Federation was wrong, and the entire East was wrong. In other words, the whole world was mistaken, and only Nikol from Yenokavan is right. This is utter absurdity.
It would be truly astonishing if, on June 7, any voter with dignity were to cast their ballot for a misguided individual who describes the 1988 National Movement as a “fatal mistake.”
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