When defeat, loss, and concessions are presented as victories, packaged in the false promise of peace and prosperity, this calls not for indifferent acceptance or disdain, but for vigilance. This should be a wake-up call for all those willing to look beyond the headlines of today and tomorrow and dive into the currents of history, imagining the future. As former Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan wrote:
“Today, Armenia is in the grip of two parallel processes: one more obvious and tangible, the other more secret and insidious. On the ground, the country has suffered devastating geopolitical blows: the complete loss of Artsakh, the cession of a corridor to Azerbaijan, the loss of border territories, and the threat of new annexations. These are not isolated phenomena or events; taken together, they represent the destruction of Armenia’s strategic depth and physical security.
In parallel, there is a quieter but no less dangerous campaign to destroy Armenian identity and values. The push to change the Constitution, the attempts to remove Mount Ararat from the national emblem, the weakening of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the rewriting of history books, the labeling of national aspirations as “revanchist,” and even the denigration of the Genocide are not just cosmetic changes. They undermine the very roots of collective Armenian memory, resistance, and morality. A nation does not survive simply by holding territory; it survives by maintaining a spirit of resistance, nurturing its symbols, and remembering the truth of the past. When these pillars are destroyed, a nation is disarmed from within.
This combination of territorial retreat and the destruction of values threatens Armenia’s long-term survival. Sovereignty without identity is empty, and identity without sovereignty is unstable. Unless this process is reversed, the future will be paradoxical. Armenia may continue to exist as a geographical concept, but we Armenians risk becoming strangers in our own homeland. A “non-Armenian Armenia” will emerge, where others will draw borders, rewrite history, and rethink values. Nations rarely disappear overnight; they disappear. The danger may not be that Armenia will disappear, but that it may continue to exist, having lost the very essence that makes it Armenian,” he wrote.