It is almost unbelievable, yet undeniably true. Barely four decades after the onset of the Artsakh (Karabakh) liberation struggle, the modern national liberation movement of the Armenian people, a figure has emerged who openly questions the heroic legacy of the 1988 pan-Armenian awakening and the victories that followed. According to his own conviction, “the Artsakh movement was a fatal mistake for Armenia.” Had such a statement come from the President of Azerbaijan or any other senior Azerbaijani official, it would hardly have been surprising. Yet the author of this astonishing claim is none other than the controversial politician who served two terms as prime minister of the Republic of Armenia and is now seeking a third.

As part of the election campaign officially launched on May 8, the ruling party’s candidate visited Syunik that day. Instead of presenting to the public the programmatic foundations, roadmap, and vision of the ruling “Civil Contract” party, he once again focused on his favorite subject: the “former rulers.” According to him, beginning in 1988, they led the Armenian people in the wrong direction. In Nikol Pashinyan’s view, Artsakh was never Armenian territory, and Armenians fought for it in vain or, as the incomprehensible Nikol-Anna duo has put it, “for nothing.” Naturally, such assertions lack credibility and cannot withstand serious scrutiny.

Artsakh has historically been Armenian territory, a fact recognized by the civilized world. The international community regarded Artsakh as a disputed issue only because Azerbaijan rejected that reality. Consequently, as is well known, the matter entered the international agenda: the conflict was internationalized, the OSCE Minsk Group with its three co-chairs was established, and for more than two decades it functioned precisely on that basis. Now, if Nikol Pashinyan claims that the Artsakh Movement was wrong, then the United States was wrong, France was wrong, the entire West was wrong, the Russian Federation was wrong, and the entire East was wrong. In other words, the whole world was mistaken, and only Nikol from Yenokavan is right. This is utter absurdity.

While Azerbaijan, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, was still searching for its genealogy and national identity, world historiography had long established that Artsakh, whose history stretches back at least four millennia, is among the world’s oldest state formations and centers of civilization and an inseparable part of Armenian statehood. The Greek historian Strabo, in his work Geography, testified that Orchistene, as referred to in ancient Greek and Roman sources, was part of Greater Armenia. Had Pashinyan possessed even an elementary knowledge of Armenian history, he would not have unquestioningly accepted the falsifications presented by his “cultured” counterpart regarding Armenia.

At least today, in Kornidzor, he would not have declared: “I say this responsibly: all that talk that ‘Karabakh was de facto ours, and now it is not’ is a lie. They say we lost land… In what way was that land ours? Explain to me, in what way was it ours? Did we build schools there? Did we build kindergartens, factories? Did we live there? In what way was it ours? … Not only was it not ours, but it was used to ensure that Armenia itself would no longer be ours.” Previously, he made similar remarks about Shushi, saying: “Shushi is an unfortunate, dull city; do we even need Shushi?” Later, Artsakh itself became a “thorn in the eye” when, in September 2023, it was left completely alone against the enemy. We lost both Shushi and Artsakh. Now, why did he go to Syunik? For what purpose?

In Kornidzor, he also complained that for decades the liberated territories had been controlled by four or five generals who simply plundered them. “They did not create an army because they thought: if they have to keep those lands, why sow wheat? Let them build houses, construct castles,” Pashinyan declared. Once again, the blame was placed on former officials. Would it not have been more appropriate to put the allegedly “plundering” generals on trial instead of unjustly defaming the army, which until 2018 was considered the most combat-ready force in the region? It was you who weakened the army by imprisoning patriotic and capable officers such as General Grigoriy Khachaturov, while appointing to key military positions individuals far removed from military affairs but personally loyal to you.

It would be truly astonishing if, on June 7, any voter with dignity were to cast their ballot for a misguided individual who describes the 1988 National Movement as a “fatal mistake.”

“Hayatsk Yerevanits” Journal