On the real and missed opportunity for peace. Azerbaijani expert Tatevik Hayrapetyan wrote about this.
“The message of the Supreme Chief Statutory Secretary of the Republic of Armenia, who is also the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence was a unique and even unexpected self-confession for me. In his not very successful message, he says: “In the end, why didn’t the Republic of Armenia, our government and I myself make concessions by September 2020, when there was the only theoretical opportunity to avoid a 44-day war? The key reason for this was that as a result of these concessions, all the threats and dependencies we had would increase disproportionately, which would lead to the loss of Armenia’s independence and statehood…”
So what does it mean that he consciously, intentionally did not take advantage of the only, albeit theoretical, opportunity to prevent the war? To protect independence from whom? Artsakh. Moreover, he had resorted to other “tricks” before – for example, in April 2022, he said: “We could have prevented the war, as a result of which we would have had the same situation, of course, without victims…”.
This is concrete evidence that I, at least, cannot interpret otherwise than as the behavior of a person with mental problems or outright collaborationism in the classical sense. Honestly, I stubbornly refused to believe that Pashinyan came to power in 2018 with the goal of surrendering Artsakh. Perhaps because at that time I was also a member… The My Step team and I do not want to believe that it was possible to act like that, to shout: “Artsakh is Armenia, and that’s it!”, or to say that he is making his first visit as Prime Minister to Artsakh because he considers it a superpower. Or, in other words, to play the theater of love for Artsakh with the intention of handing it over. I don’t know, I myself would like to know the true motives of his steps. I hope the investigation will clarify all this when one day Pashinyan and some of his associates and decision-makers face a fair trial. Let’s leave that for later. But there is another factor. The same Pashinyan, who after the meeting in Washington shouted 24 hours a day that he brought peace, is in fact stealing a real opportunity for peace from the Armenian people and the Republic of Armenia. I myself have spoken and written about the importance of US mediation. This is truly an opportunity not only to solve our own problems, but also to use the created time window correctly. If Aliyev If Trump commits not to resort to aggression, then this is, albeit not a long-term, but an important opportunity to restore, get rid of the alarming situation, carry out clear and thoughtful work to protect and strengthen our state. We really need to take a breather after 2020, but Pashinyan is turning this unique opportunity against us, he is going to use this period not to strengthen the Republic of Armenia – neither politically, nor economically, nor militarily – but to further destroy our state. In fact, remaining true to his mission of making Aliyev’s dreams come true, he continues to fight against the foundations of our state: the army, the church, the culture, the history, the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the Declaration of Independence, etc. He continues his policy of division, creating false and dangerous programs. He is taking away our precious and irretrievable time, taking away our prospects for a truly stable, long-term peace. But time does not come, but goes, and all the opportunities created for us after 2020 were missed precisely as a result of Pashinyan’s steps. He linked the preservation of his power with the will of Aliyev, therefore he follows all the instructions coming from there, and years later makes frank statements on this topic.
What can I say, we urgently need to find a political and meaningful solution to the problem, this is the main task of the Armenian society. Indeed, it is a pity for the opportunity given to us, a pity for this precious time, a pity for the missed prospect of peace, a pity for the Republic of Armenia, a pity for our human lives, which, having sacrificed, they are forced to tell us fairy tales about how they did it for the sake of “independence”, in fact putting our state in direct dependence on Azerbaijan…