Some circles in Armenia in 1990s, held to a belief that we should take up normalization of relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan at the expense of making concessions over Artsakh, otherwise Armenia would have no chance of development. The bearers of such idea were numerous among the ruling Armenian National Movement (ANM) political party at that time. Subsequently, as a winged word, the phrase "You will not live well, dear Sergo (Sergo jan) as long as Artsakh conflict is non-resolved,” is a thinking typical of the ANM reign. It refers to the first President Levon Ter-Petrossian’s answer to the reporter of “Kartsiq“ (Opinion) TV program Sergo Yeritsyan’s question on the measures taken for poverty reduction and building social state within the 5 years of the president’s tenure since 1996, during a press conference, held on September 26, 1997.
A similar view existed in Armenia in distant 1920s. It is not accidental that in both cases an attempt was made to enter the political arena of the West through Turkey, which itself was a distinctive orientation of foreign policy. In both cases, the results were tragic.
It was those people’s deep conviction, but as the Artsakh issue has become a national program since 1988, particularly after the victories in the 1990s, similar thinking became marginalized, nonetheless the original conviction and its ideologues remained. It was through that circle that the incumbent Prime Minister entered the spheres of journalism, and later politics.
It was considered that the concessive position could not be acceptable for the people from Artsakh, and those of Artsakh origin for obvious reasons, therefore the separation of residents of Armenia and of Karabakh was promoted by those very circles. The incumbent Prime Minister also carried out such a campaign. To be convinced of that, it is enough to look at his articles of those years.
Both in 1920 and now it has become clear that, that Turkey and Azerbaijan are interested not in Artsakh, but in Armenia, which hinders their physical unification. It was not accidental that at Ataturk's request Nakhichevan passed to Azerbaijan, and in the 1930s Nakhichevan and Turkey gained a land border by exchanging territories with Iran. It is a long-planned national program for Turks and Azeris, and it was Artsakh that was hindering the implementation of that project.
If we carefully examine the biographies of the representatives of the political majority of the National Assembly formed after 2018, we will see that a significant part of them are the bearers of the point of view in question, who have been carefully selected and prepared over the past years.
The beginning of the second Artsakh war should be considered the 2018 parliamentary elections, which were "successful" for that political current, and the war was already guaranteed. The "strange" events that took place during and before that war seem to take on a concrete expression and logic.
The program is not over yet, and the members of the current parliament, irrespective of the fact whether they represent government or opposition, are conscious or unconscious, speak or keep silence, are responsible for all what happened, individually and indefinitely.
And as for "Sergo jan", we can only feel sorry for him, because he continues to live badly even after "paying the price".