Robert Margaryan
Based on declassified U.S. State Department documents, Azatutyun claimed in a recent publication that Armenia’s second president, Robert Kocharyan, and Azerbaijan’s then-president, Heydar Aliyev, conducted negotiations about exchanging Meghri for Artsakh.
It’s unclear why this report has caused such enthusiasm among Civil Contract (CP) party members and their propaganda machine, including Petros Ghazaryan from Public TV and civic.am, when the publication and accompanying video primarily expose two major lies from their leader, Nikol Pashinyan, in recent times.
If we assume that the claims in the film are true, it means Nikol Pashinyan is lying in at least two instances:
First, contrary to his claim that since 1994, and at least until the official proposals in Key West, Artsakh was regarded as part of Armenia. Let’s recall that last November in Parliament, Nikol Pashinyan insisted that the negotiation process since 1994 had always revolved around leaving Artsakh within Azerbaijan.
Also, contrary to Pashinyan’s claim that the issue of recognizing the Armenian Genocide has never been on the agenda of any Armenian government, the film presents that President Kocharyan demanded official recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Turkey in exchange for handing over Meghri.
Now, let the CP members decide which version they prefer. If they claim that the assertions in the film are true, then their leader is exposed as a liar. But if their leader is telling the truth, then the entire content of the film—which they were so excited about—comes into question.
Incidentally, if CP members had bought and read President Kocharyan’s memoir in time, they wouldn’t be running around the streets shouting “Eureka, Eureka.” Unlike their leader, President Kocharyan, being candid in his memoirs, wrote about all this six years ago and has since recounted it in various interviews—all the things Azatutyun claims to have found in the U.S. State Department’s declassified documents.
It’s also highly interesting that the State Department decided to declassify documents specifically about President Robert Kocharyan and precisely during this period. It would be intriguing to learn when, where, how, and—most importantly—why these documents were revealed.
Thanks to the CP (and not just the CP) for so openly displaying their fears regarding the second president and the parliamentary opposition he leads.
The funniest part related to Azatutyun’s video, however, was Nikol Pashinyan’s reaction during his latest press conference:
“Next, there’s a comment from former Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian on that topic, who also invited me to a debate in that report. He says: ‘When Kocharyan met with Aliyev, Vazgen Sargsyan and I were also there. When Kocharyan came out, he said that Aliyev was offering such a proposal, and our first reaction was that Aliyev was ready to give up Karabakh.’ So, was Karabakh Aliyev’s? In 1999, was Karabakh Aliyev’s, and you were happy that Aliyev was ready to give it up?” said Nikol Pashinyan during the press conference.
In reality, Heydar Aliyev was preparing in Key West to do the opposite of what Nikol Pashinyan did in 2023 in Prague. Heydar Aliyev was going to officially recognize Artsakh as part of Armenia.
Thank you to Nikol Pashinyan for once again confirming his act of betrayal with his own example.
By that same logic, we must now ask Nikol Pashinyan, “Was Artsakh ours when you handed it over to the Turks? If it belonged to someone else, you wouldn’t have been able to give it away.”
Translated from its original in Armenian by Oragark
