Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan claimed over the weekend that most Armenians support his appeasement policy towards Azerbaijan because they prioritize living peaceful lives over engaging in conflict and making sacrifices.
Pashinyan stated that the prevailing sentiment in Armenia is, “we don’t want to fight anymore, we don’t want to survive, we don’t want to suffer, we don’t want to be sacrificed, we just want to live.”
“And the people’s message to their elites and to us as the ruling, governing majority is: ‘Can you create conditions for us to just live, just live?’” he said during a conference of his Civil Contract party.
According to Pashinyan, this perspective is the ideology of the “real Armenia” that he and his political team aim to establish. However, he pointed out that Azerbaijan’s ongoing hostility towards Armenians is a significant obstacle to this vision, emphasizing that his administration must “manage” this challenge.
Pashinyan summarized Azerbaijan’s stance towards Armenia as, “You didn’t let me live for 30 years, I won’t let you live either, and I will take revenge on you.”
Pashinyan’s comments were condemned on Monday by representatives of Armenia’s leading opposition groups. These groups blame him for Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 conflict and the subsequent takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh, accusing him of implementing a “treasonous” policy that poses existential threats to Armenia.
“The concept put forward by him is: ‘We must yield to the Turks on all issues to prevent war, but if there is a war… we must hand the country’s keys to the Turks or become a Turkish province because we don’t want to suffer,’” said Artur Khachatrian of the Hayastan alliance.
“To be able to live in your country, you must be ready to defend its borders against enemies,” Khachatrian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But he says, ‘No, enough with fighting.’ He is thereby destroying the idea of statehood.”
“So in order to live well, raise children, and be happy, you have to renounce your faith, your land, and [the memory of] your martyrs,” scoffed Hayk Mamijanian, the parliamentary leader of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc.
Mamijanian accused Pashinyan of wanting Armenians to “give up national security” while acknowledging that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has no intention of making peace.
Pashinyan’s statement came after more than a month of antigovernment protests in Yerevan, triggered by his decision to cede several disputed border areas in the Tavush province to Azerbaijan. The protests, led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, head of the Tavush diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, drew tens of thousands of people to the capital’s streets.
Pashinyan defended his unilateral territorial concessions even before the mass rallies, claiming they would prevent an Azerbaijani invasion of Armenia. The Armenian opposition dismissed these claims as scaremongering. Opposition leaders argue that Pashinyan’s appeasement policy will not lead to lasting peace between the two South Caucasus nations.
