Following his meeting with Nikol Pashinyan in Bishkek, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again stated that in October 2022, in Prague, Nikol Pashinyan recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, after which Russia could no longer do anything — after all, it could hardly interfere in Azerbaijan’s internal affairs.
It would probably be unfair to say that Putin’s statement is illogical. At the same time, however, it is interesting to consider what was discussed before the October 6, 2022, Prague meeting and within the framework of what agreements the February 22, 2022, Moscow Declaration was signed — the Declaration on Allied Interaction between Russia and Azerbaijan. What did Ilham Aliyev get in return for agreeing to sign a declaration on allied interaction withcom just two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Incidentally, a number of deadly ceasefire violations subsequently took place in the presence of Russian peacekeepers, including the major incidents in Parukh and Karaglukh in August 2022. And the October 6, 2022, Prague meeting had not yet taken place.
However, despite all these questions concerning Russia — which official Yerevan has been widely attempting to exploit in the propaganda arena — there is perhaps one indisputable reality: on any issue related to the fate of Armenia and Artsakh, the citizens of Armenia should demand accountability from Armenia’s political authorities, not from any other country or international organization — whether Putin, Macron, or Michel.
Under no circumstances should the policies of those actors become an excuse for any failure or lack of effectiveness on the part of Armenia’s political authorities. If a precedent is established — and eventually even a tradition, a culture of public judgment — whereby manifestations of the Armenian authorities’ ineffectiveness are justified or explained by the conduct of some external actor, then that is the beginning of the end of the state and of statehood: an “indulgence” granted to the political authorities on this matter.
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And turning Putin into official Yerevan’s “indulgence” means turning Armenia from a state into a “tumbleweed.”
Hakob BADALYAN
