Why are Aliyev, Erdogan and Putin siding with Armenia’s Prime Minister?

Putin, Erdogan and Aliyev at the European Games in Baku in June 2015. (Photo: Azerbaijani Presidential Press Service)

As the situation in Armenia is getting more chaotic on a daily basis, baseless accusations are becoming a common practice. It is no longer possible to distinguish fact from fiction.

Sadly, words like ‘traitor’ and phrases like ‘bought by Turks or Azeris’ are being used by Armenians to accuse fellow Armenians without a shred of evidence. We have all heard multiple times that the territories around Artsakh were given up by the former presidents long before the war and that Armenian traitors helped the enemy by disclosing our military secrets or urged soldiers to stop fighting during the war. These accusations have been repeated so often that a lot of Armenians believe them to be true. If there were so many traitors during the war, how come not one such traitor has been arrested and convicted for treason? Normally, traitors during a war are immediately arrested, convicted and shot by a firing squad.

I do not believe that there are any traitors among us nor are there Armenians who sold their soul to the enemy for a handful of dollars. These are made up stories just because we disagree with each other. Regrettably, most Armenians do not know how to carry out a civilized conversation without insulting those they disagree with.

In this analysis, I will avoid using such terms as “traitor” and “sold out,” and stick as much as possible to the facts, no matter how difficult they are to discern.

One issue that keeps coming up is the fact that the presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia seem to prefer Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the opposition. This does not mean that Pashinyan is a traitor or is working for the interests of Armenia’s enemies. I believe that Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia are siding with Pashinyan for two main reasons:

  1. All three realize that Pashinyan, defeated in the Artsakh War and having signed a capitulation document, is in no position to go against the wishes of Azerbaijan, Turkey and especially Russia. Whereas, as a former member of the opposition, Pashinyan was totally anti-Russian, he changed his tune and supported all Russian initiatives even before the war. After the war, he is completely beholden to Putin and does not dare to deviate one bit from the Russian president’s directives. This became even more so after Pres. Putin repeatedly praised Pashinyan for signing the Nov. 10, 2020 trilateral agreement and abiding by its terms. Azerbaijan and Turkey are also satisfied that, after their defeat of Armenia, there is a leader like Pashinyan who is fully going along with the terms of the agreement.
  2. Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia also realize that should Pashinyan’s rule topple, his successor may not be as amenable to comply with the terms of the trilateral agreement. While a defeated country is in no position to contest these imposed terms, the fact that Pashinyan’s opponents are expressing their opposition to that agreement means that Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia may have to deal with a new Armenian leader who will question the terms of the agreement that the three countries consider a fait accompli. Aliyev, Erdogan and Putin naturally prefer to deal with Pashinyan based on their own interests. At best, we can say that Pashinyan is reluctantly going along with these three leaders. At worst, he truly believes that the ceasefire agreement is in the best interest of Armenia, paving the way to the lifting of blockaded transportation routes, thus potentially boosting Armenia’s economy.

We can be on different sides of the above analysis, but one thing is clear. Pashinyan should not cross any red lines which are totally contrary to Armenia’s national interests. It is one thing to be obligated to go along with your enemies after your defeat, but it is a whole different thing to enthusiastically comply with their wishes, mistakenly believing that the enemy’s imposed actions are in Armenia’s own interest. Aliyev and Erdogan have repeatedly stated that they are willing to allow Armenia to use their transportation routes under certain conditions which were: 1) return Artsakh territories to Azerbaijan (which has been mostly accomplished through the use of force), 2) recognize the existing borders of the Republic of Turkey (no more territorial demands from Turkey), and 3) discontinue the international pursuit of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. More recently, Aliyev added a new demand: signing a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which means that Armenia will give up claiming Artsakh as an Armenian territory.

In my view, these Azeri and Turkish demands should be rejected by Armenia’s current leaders. These are red lines that no Armenian government should cross, depriving future Armenian generations of their right to pursue the nation’s just demands.

It remains to be seen if Armenia’s next leaders will be able to find a way to minimize the losses from the war. But one thing is certain: Pashinyan must resign immediately allowing a new and more competent leadership to manage Armenia’s current catastrophic situation.

Harut Sassounian

Harut Sassounian

California Courier Editor
Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the Armenia Artsakh Fund, a non-profit organization that has donated to Armenia and Artsakh one billion dollars of humanitarian aid, mostly medicines, since 1989 (including its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund). He has been decorated by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

5 Comments

  1. Armenia is and will always be physically incapable of taking any territory from Turkey. Therefore, making the purely symbolic, practically irrelevant, “concession” of recognizing Turkey’s borders, in exchange for getting real material benefits, is a good idea. We almost had that with the Protocols.

    Similarly, 100 years ago, Armenia was physically incapable of implementing the Treaty of Sevres. It should therefore have gone to Ataturk and agreed to “trade” the Treaty of Sevres in exchange for Ataturk recognizing Armenia’s borders. If it had done that, the Republic of Armenia would be twice the size it is today, and would include Kars, Ani, and Mount Ararat.

    • “Armenia is and will always be physically incapable of taking any territory from Turkey.”

      Nonsense.

      You speak as if Turkey is 1. A stable nation, 2. Turkey is ethnically homogeneous, and 3. NATO will forever support Turkey. The second the USA pulls the plug, Turkey would go back into the stone-age in a few years. Of course Erdogan’s lapdog Putin is unpredictable and might come to his rescue if that were to happen.

      Which brings us to the main point. Artsakh did not lose because of Azerbaijan or even Turkey. Artsakh lost because of Russia’s betrayal and Armenia’s incompetent approach to politics in dealing with the international community. Armenia 100% relied on and trusted “Mother Russia”, that “any kind of force is unacceptable and will be punished”, only to learn that principle only applies to Armenia not Turkey and Azerbaijan, which was completely approved by Erdogan’s lapdog Putin.

      Side note. After WWII when general Antranig found out how many hundreds of thousands of Armenians helped ungrateful Russia, he was quite disturbed, saying something like he would take Istanbul within a month if he had such an army at his command.

      The failure of Armenians and Armenia is that we always look to “live in peace with our neighbors”. After 100 years we still do not understand that our neighbors are not France and Switzerland, they are Turks.

    • Alex, are you a prophet? How can you predict that Armenia will be “always” incapable of taking territory from Turkey? Really? You mean from now to eternity? Have you ever heard of countries getting stronger, weaker or even disappearing? What makes you think Turkey will remain the same way forever?
      The surest way to lose our lands is to give up on our rights and our dream! Once we give up then no matter what changes happen in our favor, it will be of no use for us, because we have already given up.

  2. Mr Sassounian, this article is not up to your usual standards.

    Let me just make a simple statement:

    A Prime Minister who is not a traitor does not get in front of parliament and boldly state: “what do we need Shushi for??” after eagerly handing it away. Such a “Prime Minister” is a TRAITOR in every sense of the term.

    Additionally a Prime Minister who is not a traitor does not conflate a conflict in unrecognized Artsakh with recognized Armenia’s own sovereignty and hand over whatever it is Azeris and Turks want for some mythical “maybe” benefit.

    If Pashinyan wanted to go down in Armenia’s history as a non-traitor all he had to do was resign immediately when Ergodan’s lapdog Putin came knocking on his door. Everything else you say about Pashinyan is just noise.

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