Editor’s Note: The following remarks were delivered during a protest outside the Armenian Embassy in Washington, DC on November 9 as part of the AYF-Eastern Region’s participation in the pan-Armenian youth resistance movement launched by the ARF Bureau Office of Youth Affairs in Armenia.
Harkeli Hayrenakitsner, Sireli Ungerner,
The words I will read to you in a few moments are not meant for you. I thought about what to say to you, but struggled to find the words. I am tired of preaching to the choir. We are all here for the same reason. We are here because Nikol Pashinyan has failed the people of Artsakh and Armenia. These words are to him.
Dear Nikol,
Who are your heroes? In that cruel twist of fate in 2018, when you took the seat of Prime Minister, did you take a moment to pause? A moment to ask yourself, how do I want to lead the Armenian people? Who can I look up to?
Who are your heroes?
It cannot be Njdeh. He knew how to protect Syunik and Artsakh. It cannot be Aram Manoukian. He knew how to lead a nation. It cannot be Tatul Grbeyan. He never would have asked “mez bed’q er Shushin?” And we know with certainty that it cannot be the thousands of Armenian soldiers who gave their lives to the defense of our lands this past year.
You cannot point to any of our prominent Armenian leaders, fedayees, writers, thinkers, and tell us that these are your models or motivators. Perhaps your delusions of grandeur have led you to believe that you know better than the greats of our history. Make no mistake. You do not. And you are a failure. An Armenian leader who cherishes their history could never have so wholly betrayed their people as you have done.
On November 9, 2020, you spoke to the Armenian nation, the weakest words of surrender.
You told us, “I have made a difficult, extremely difficult decision for myself and for all of us” and that it is “unspeakably painful for me personally and for our people.” You are foolish. “Extremely difficult” is the decision our 18, 19, 20-year old boys made, going to the front lines and sacrificing their lives. Yet you remain alive. “Unspeakably painful” is the pain mothers and fathers felt burying their children, forever to remain children.
With bold hypocrisy, you told us, “We must analyze our years of independence in order to plan our future and prevent the repetition of our mistakes.” Please explain to the Armenian people how your analysis of independence led you to the conclusion to concede 70-percent of our independent land in Artsakh. Please tell us how entrusting our enemies with our holy lands will prevent the repetition of our mistakes.
In the disastrous nine-point agreement that you unilaterally signed, at the very least, point eight promised an exchange of prisoners of war. One year later, our lands are gone, yet we still have over 200 Armenian POWs missing. What are you doing to ensure the safe return of our POWs? You may as well be dancing on the graves in Yerablur.
We have constantly had to fight tragedy after tragedy in our history. And we have fought, with great resilience, to ensure our survival. How did you decide, in one fell swoop, to render centuries of our existential struggle inconsequential?
Our country is caught in the middle of two genocidal enemies who want nothing more than to see Armenia wiped off the map. Your reckless actions are single-handedly making Erdogan’s and Aliyev’s pan-Turkic dream, a reality.
We are very familiar with fighting against two enemies on either side of us. But you are an enemy within. We will continue to fight. Like I said, we are very familiar with the struggle and we are resilient in a way that you can never understand. This resistance movement is just the beginning of our fight to ensure that you and your traitorous regime cannot sell out our country to appease our enemies.
With every land concession, we will resist. With every corridor you try to open, we will resist. With every effort you make towards the Turkification of Armenia, will will resist a thousand times over.
While you bend to the will of our enemies, millions of Armenians around the world straighten their backs in defiance against your cowardice.
While you desecrate the Armenian Cause, millions of us raise it higher and hold it holy.
Dante assigned the worst sin, the sin of treachery, to the ninth circle of hell: “the lowest, blackest, and farthest from Heaven.” You have made Armenia your hell, and you will never feel peace walking on our sacred soil again.
Armenia is our heaven. You may have been brought to power on velvet plush, but your fall will be harder than that of Lucifer’s.
In defiance,
The Worldwide AYF Resistance Movement
Areni Margossian
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