Yerevan officially ends the struggle for Karabakh

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, speaking in the Parliament of the republic, stated the need to complete the Karabakh movement in order to conclude peace with Azerbaijan and secure the future of the Armenian statehood. The opposition believes that the head of government is making one concession after another to Baku. However, the Azerbaijanis are not ready to fight for Karabakh either.

“Does Armenia, the people of Armenia, want to continue the Karabakh movement or not? How was the Karabakh movement used on the path of Armenia’s statehood? I want to state clearly and unequivocally: I believe that we should not continue the Karabakh movement. And I want to say that the peaceful path we are following is the most effective way to resolve the issue of prisoners. There is no more effective way,” Pashinyan said.

In this way, the head of government responded to the opposition’s accusations of surrendering the national interests of the republic due to the approval of the text of the peace treaty with Azerbaijan. In particular, Pashinyan’s opponents were unhappy that he was not working on the return of the former leaders of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), who are currently being tried in Baku.

In turn, MP from the Armenia bloc Artur Khachatryan stated that the Prime Minister has no right to talk about the end of the Karabakh movement. “Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh. – “NG”) was recognized by the international community as a party to the conflict back in March 1992. They have not transferred their rights to you. Another thing is that in Prague in 2022, you recognized the authority of Azerbaijan in relation to Artsakh, obeying Baku’s demands. Here, in parliament, you demand to give up Artsakh,” the politician said.

However, Pashinyan continued to stand his ground. According to him, if the people decide that this approach is contrary to national interests, he will immediately resign, and until then, the cessation of the Karabakh movement will remain the official position of Yerevan.

Anyway, the head of the Azerbaijani Atlas Center for Political Studies, Elkhan Shahinoglu, believes that Pashinyan made the right decision. “Unlike the opposition, he understands that the continuation of the Karabakh movement is one of the main obstacles to peace with Azerbaijan. It is incompatible with the peace treaty. Its continuation after the ratification of the document will indicate that nothing has changed,” the expert told NG.

Anton Yevstratov, an associate professor at the Russian-Armenian University, believes that the reason for this and other similar statements by Pashinyan is his desire to make peace with Baku at any cost. “If the “peace agenda” does not end with the signing of the treaty, even Pashinyan’s supporters will decide that he has completely failed as head of government. It turns out that all the concessions, losses, and unpopular decisions of recent years have been in vain and have only complicated the country’s situation. All this will make sense only if Yerevan and Baku make peace,” Yevstratov said.

In his opinion, it is difficult to say how many people support Pashinyan’s policy. But more often than not, refugees want to continue fighting for Karabakh. “In any case, the support that Pashinyan’s team had at the beginning of its leadership of the country is no longer there and most likely will not be,” the expert believes.

However, Yevstratov does not believe that Azerbaijan will agree to sign a peace treaty with Armenia in the foreseeable future. Firstly, Baku does not suffer in any way due to the lack of an agreement. Secondly, the Azerbaijani authorities see Pashinyan’s willingness to make concessions as an opportunity to further strengthen their position.

Political scientist Mikael Zolyan, on the contrary, is convinced that the majority of Armenians do not want to continue fighting for Karabakh. “The wording itself is a bit strange, since the Karabakh movement ended a long time ago. In this way, Pashinyan probably sent a signal to Turkey and Azerbaijan that Yerevan is not going to fight for the revival of the NKR. I think that the majority of Armenians agree with this, although they are not ready to talk about it publicly. In the framework of patriotic discourse, it is still necessary to declare the opposite, but in fact no one wants to risk their lives. Perhaps if there was at least one realistic scenario of Armenia’s victory now, the mood would be different,” concluded Zolyan.