Who stole Christmas from Armenians?
Definitely not the Grinch

ANALYTICS  05 January 2023 - 10:00

Some countries, in particular Azerbaijan, welcomed the New Year with a sense of great work done and upcoming prospects. The situation is quite different in Armenia. This country enters the New Year with a large number of economic and social problems, from which ordinary Armenians have been suffocating for years, with a terrible demographic situation, which is a vivid indicator of all the "successes" of Armenian politics, which Yerevan so often likes to boast about. Armenians are simply fleeing their country, still isolated and unwilling to take steps toward a world of open borders and economic development. To sum up 2022, it must be said bluntly: Armenian politicians have ruined a New Year's celebration and a year for their people with their toxic policies during this year, more than the Grinch and other fairytale heroes of Christmas.

Pashinyan and his Christmas presents

The PM could really make Armenians happy on New Year if at least in autumn he contributed to all the negotiation progress, which was launched between Baku and Yerevan in the first half of the year. Since autumn, however, Yerevan has pursued a markedly more destructive policy, regularly staging provocations on the notional Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Although the Prague meeting in October between Presidents Aliyev, Pashinyan, Macron, and EU President Charles Michel ended with Armenia's recognition of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, Pashinyan's further negotiations were reduced to almost nothing. And Pashinyan's ridiculous demand to turn the bilateral meeting between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan into a trilateral format with President Macron's participation put the process of signing a peace treaty to a complete standstill. Although if Pashinyan had signed a peace agreement with Azerbaijan back in November, by the end of the year Armenians would have already felt some change in their quality of life. But, alas... Pashinyan once again chickened out, succumbed to the influence of the revanchists, and is again talking populist nonsense and shirking his obligations to conclude a peace treaty with Baku in every possible way.

Santa Vardanyan

Russian "Father Christmas" Vardanyan did not come to Karabakh to give presents, but rather to rob and plunder Azerbaijan's natural resources and to foment separatist sentiments in Karabakh. By turning the situation on the Lachin road into a myth about a "humanitarian crisis" in Khankendi, Vardanyan has not achieved the desired effect but has only exacerbated his position in Karabakh. And although the Armenians seem to have temporarily stopped mining in Karabakh, Azerbaijan is certainly not satisfied with these measures. Vardanyan is now the most unnecessary and toxic figure for the Armenians living in the zone of responsibility of the RPC in Karabakh - he not only does not improve their lives on New Year but gives new "joys", inflating, according to the very locals themselves, the artificial deficit in the shops of Khankendi, forcing them to go to the rallies, using the little children in idiotic propaganda flashmobs. Instead of leaving Karabakh for good, Vardanyan keeps asking for trouble, and now he certainly feels very uneasy even in his office - being "blacklisted" in Baku, Vardanyan should very seriously fear the variety of measures towards his person, up to spot-killing by drone from the sky unless he will not be strung up on the nearest tree by Karabakh Armenians themselves, who perfectly understand that Armenians in Khankendi will not see peace and well-being as long as this irrepressible scoundrel is here.

Yerevan's evil Cheburashka

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan is nicknamed "the evil Cheburashka" for a reason: he is a highly destructive and incapable person. He did Armenians a disservice on New Year's Eve by refusing to come to Moscow for a trilateral meeting with the Russian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers. Thus, he ignored the negotiations on a peace treaty, finally killing any chance that this document could have been signed between Baku and Yerevan by the end of the year. Or at least move the process forward somehow by the end of 2022. However, for such impudence, he got an impressive diplomatic slap from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who lashed out at Mirzoyan and expressed confidence that "unpleasant incidents" would continue for Armenia if the Armenian side was unwilling to participate in the negotiation process. Whether this advice will reach the Armenian authorities will be seen in the new year 2023, but Mirzoyan, already battered by Armenians for his lies and toxicity, risks receiving another head injury - this time for spoiling the New Year.

Caliber.Az