It is simply amazing that every time PM Nikol Pashinyan opens his mouth, he makes a new and bigger blunder. To be convinced of this, all one has to do is follow his speeches, press conferences, contradictory statements in the National Assembly, Facebook postings, flawed decisions and unqualified nominations. To make matters worse, he does not seem to learn from his errors. Pashinyan neither realizes nor admits his mistakes. He seems to be incorrigible.
On January 24, 2022, the Prime Minister gave another one of his so-called press conferences. No reporters were present to ask questions and challenge his misstatements. It was a poorly-orchestrated show to mislead the public. Broadcast journalist Tatev Danielyan read the questions supposedly sent by the media. When one journalist complained later that his question was presented in a garbled manner, Danielyan confessed that she had simply read the questions given to her by the Prime Minister’s aides.
Among the Prime Minister’s biggest blunders was his reply to a question about Armenian historical demands from Turkey. Pashinyan stated that “the Republic of Armenia has never conducted a policy of the Armenian Cause. Never.” I seriously doubt that he knows the meaning of “the Armenian Cause.” His comment is no different than what a Turkish official would have said. It is shameful that after the horrendous genocide that was committed against Armenians in 1915-1923, killing 1.5 million innocent men, women and children, and dispossessing them of their historic homeland, the Prime Minister so casually dismisses Armenians’ just demands and acts as if nothing had happened. This is exactly what the Turkish leaders want — that Armenians forget about the past and drop their demands.
Furthermore, the Prime Minister falsely stated that Pres. “Robert Kocharyan in 2005 publicly announced that Armenia does not have territorial demands or territorial expectations from Turkey.” I recall reporting about Kocharyan’s statement back in April 2005, when a Yerevan State University student asked him about Armenia’s demands for land from Turkey. Kocharyan cautiously responded: “This issue would have to be taken up by a future President.” It is clear that at a time when Armenia had its hands full dealing with the conflict with Azerbaijan over Artsakh, it was not in Armenia’s best interest to open a second front with Turkey over Armenian territories. Kocharyan did not say that Armenia had no territorial demands from Turkey. He simply said that the resolution of that issue has to be taken up at a later date. It is a shame that Prime Minister Pashinyan repeated what the Turkish media had falsely reported rather than what was actually said by the previous President of Armenia.
Going from one distortion to the next, Pashinyan falsely added that Pres. “Serzh Sargsyan had made a reference to Kocharyan’s statement.” I do not recall Sargsyan making such a reference. Pashinyan continued by stating that “Armenia never placed in doubt the Armenia-Turkey border. You will not find a single leader or government of the Armenian Republic who put in doubt the Armenia-Turkey border. We have not resigned from this policy.” In reality, until Pashinyan, no Armenian President or government had accepted the current Armenia-Turkey border nor stated that Armenia did not have territorial demands from Turkey.
Coming to the issue of the Armenian Genocide, PM Pashinyan wrongly stated: “We must register that the locomotive behind the process of the recognition of the Genocide has always been the Diaspora and Diaspora organizations.” This is exactly what the Turkish government would want the Armenian leader to say. There are several things wrong with the Prime Minister’s statement.
1) Pashinyan is once again splitting the Diaspora from Armenia.
2) The Armenian Genocide is not exclusively a Diaspora issue. The descendants of Armenian Genocide survivors constitute today over one-third of Armenia’s population. That is why every year on April 24 over one million Armenians march to the Armenian Genocide monument in Yerevan.
3) All previous Armenian governments have pursued the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In fact, Armenia’s Declaration of Independence, issued on August 23, 1990, declared the following: “Aware of its historic responsibility for the destiny of the Armenian people engaged in the realization of the aspirations of all Armenians and the restoration of historical justice,” and “The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.” Significantly, the Declaration used the words “Western Armenia,” which is now being abandoned by the Prime Minister. Later, Armenia’s Constitution included a link to the Declaration of Independence.
4) The pursuit of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is a pan Armenian issue which concerns both the Diaspora and Armenia. Therefore, there must be a coordinated division of labor between the Diaspora and the Armenian government. What the Diaspora is able to do is different from what the Armenian government can do and vice versa.
The Prime Minister also made many other misstatements in his over two-hour-long so-called press conference. However, an entire book has to be written, not just an article, to expose all of his misstatements.
Harut Sassounian
When is this incompetent being deposed? All options need to be exercised to get rid of this guy before we lose Armenia for good.
Thanks Harut for your brief and informative article.
Couple of Points from your Iranian neighbor; a) It is not in the interest of Armenia for its PM to split the Diaspora from Armenia. b) although we do not enjoy the liberal democracy in South, but during age of these theocrats, we have not lost one inch of our land to alliance of adversaries, we defended our land and got united when we were pushed. I expect nothing less from my dearest friends, brothers and Sisters in North. We do not play politics, at the time of need, you can count on us, we are there with you. United we will prevail, divided we will be defeated.
Harut was supporting Nikol 3 years ago. If 3 years ago I told Harut, Nikol was put into power to sell Artsakh and normalize relations with Turks, Harut would say “where is your evidence”…
To this faceless and nameless person: I wish you had the courage to identify yourself, just like I do every week. For your information, I am not a blind critic or blind supporter of anyone, To me, the nation and national interest is much more important than any one individual. When someone does something positive for the nation, whether I like him or not, I say supportive words. When someone does something damaging to the national interest, i criticize him even if it is someone I like. I suggest you go back and read the many articles I have written critical of Pashinyan in the last couple of years. You can also go on my Facebook page to read or watch the dozens of interviews I have given to newspapers and TV stations in Armenia highly critical of Pashinyan. Nevertheless, if tomorrow Pashinyan does something positive for Armenia, by chance, I will be the first one to commend his action.
Concerned Armenian
If some people showed support for Pashinyan a couple of years ago and are now against his policies that alone shows how good of a LIAR Pashinyan was to fool people into believing his empty words. Follow the news from when Pashinyan came to the political scene seeking to strip the former Armenian leader from his power and take over the government to the current situation and you will see that there are hundreds of political activists and analysts who today not only are vehemently against Pashniyan’s destructive and treasonous policies but they also call for his resignation and are quite active in deposing him of his leadership position WHEN a few years ago they were in support of him. Pashniyan fooled the entire Armenian nation. Those who voted for him are nowhere to be seen when a few years ago they would fill the streets by the thousands because they too feel they were betrayed by this scoundrel. Pashniyan is an incompetent flip-flopper and the worst “leader” politically ignorant and gullible Armenian voters have ever voted into office.
You see, when an ignorant fool off the street makes an absurd statement questioning whether or not the sacred Armenian town of Shushi, the cultural capital of Artsakh, is Armenian or Azerbaijani because before the start of the first Artsakh Liberation War the population of this enemy-occupied town was 93% Azerbaijani you can ignore him but when the leader of Armenia, not to mention a former journalist who is supposed to know the Armenian history in great depth and at much higher level, makes a similar statement without taking into account its recent bloody history and realizing that back in 1920 before Artsakh was handed over to the enemy by the criminal Soviets, the Armenian quarters of this town was burnt down and leveled to the ground and some 20,000 Armenians were murdered and the rest forced out as a result of attacks by Azerbaijanis in collaboration with genocidal Turks, then you can no longer have any doubt that Pashinyan has no business occupying the office of the prime minster of the Armenian republic. He’s been a disaster for the Armenians worldwide. The sooner he’s kicked out of the office the better.
Hes a traitor within. Its that simple. Traitors need to be exposed and rid. Its no coincidence that after 30 years of holding our lands that as soon as this incompetent loser pretender comes to office that a “war” starts. He is gleeful to lose Artsakh. That is clear. And now he is willing to sacrifice the memory and injustice of 1.5 million Armenians who were murdered and whose wealth and lands were stolen. Imagine an Israeli PM saying the Holocaust was a Jewish diaspora demand? How absurd this useless man is. Yes Armenians were hoping for change from the past corrupt thieves but instead got someone even worse: A traitor purposely losing and sacrificing everything that is Armenian by dividing Armenians themselves. Turks couldn’t have found a better partner in Pashinyan. There needs to be Armenian protest worldwide, not in front of the Turkish consulate but the Armenian consulate, demanding this traitors resignation. Hes a danger to the Armenian nation itself.
Prior to Pashinyan coming to power I found myself agreeing to most things the author of this article wrote about. After Pashinyan coming to power I find myself disagreeing with most things this author writes about. Serious political observers knew who and what Pashinyan was even before 2018. Therefore, there was no excuse for a “community leader” and “political commentator” to praise Pashinyan in 2018. People need to have a little depth and wisdom before they express opinions on topics as complex as politics.
I suggest you read my comment above. I am pro-Armenian, not pro-Pashinyan. Even then, should he do something that’s in Armenia’s interest, I praise him, but him doing anything good is very rare these days. I definitely have not praised him in the last two years and before then, I praised him once. Compare that to my dozens of columns, TV and press interviews highly critical of Pashinyan.
Every politician is a thief mate. Don’t be praising any of them. Some may start off with good intentions then offers come in from corrupt establishments to good to resist. They justify the robbery because every other one is doing it. Its like looting. Most are uneducated as well. Look at Erdogan, Trump. Erdogan did some economics course ages back and since then he has declared himself the master of economics. Its like a traffic controller with his 3 days of study time declaring himself to be a engineer of the worksite.