Human rights defender: Imprudence of authorities led Armenia to disaster

"Since 1988 I have written a lot about dialogue and reconciliation. But my appeals were met with one answer: conversation means concession, and we have nothing to concede, we have no interlocutor either, they are enemies, we don't talk to the enemy, we defeat him," human rights activist Vardan Harutyunyan wrote in his article in Aravot newspaper.

"Surprisingly, the human casualties and, since 2016, territorial losses have not stopped. The uncompromising stance formed in the 1990s and reinforced by the 20-year campaign after 1998 continued to dictate itself even after the 2020 defeat. Moreover, there has been no softening of the position since December 2022, when the risk of loss was more than real. The same people spoke, with the same vocabulary and the same irresponsible heroism. No change of position was observed in Garabagh either," the article says, according to Caliber.Az.

"What Serzh Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan and their supporters, who opposed a compromise solution to the problem in 1998, wanted is more than clear. They wanted power. The occasion was the Garabagh issue. They manipulated, got power and in 20 years, without taking a single objective step to solve the Garabagh problem, they became the masters of our country, prospered got rich, and turned the country into a poor and worthless backyard of Russia.

It is also clear what Pashinyan wanted when, after coming to power in 2018, he turned the negotiations into a farce, making statements divorced from reality. He got carried away with narcissism and decided that he was an unprecedented and unheard-of hero and wanted to be seen as an even bigger hero. Not realising the seriousness of the situation, he joked that he was not afraid of war, that he would win, waved the Treaty of Sevres, and talked about shattering the internal political life of Azerbaijan. But he failed on all fronts and went down in our history as an unpromising and failed leader, during whose reign only retreats and defeats were recorded.

But it is not at all clear what the 'authorities' of Garabagh wanted, especially after mid-2022. If we take into account the defeat of 2020, the weakness of Armenia, and the defenceless 'state of Garabagh' (the inverted commas by Caliber.Az - ed.), their steps are incomprehensible. Ruben Vardanyan's appointment was incomprehensible when Azerbaijan clearly stated that it would not negotiate with him. The reasons for such a statement are not important. What is important is that in his case, after 2020, the mentioned conversation between Garabagh and Azerbaijan was interrupted, which, not excluded, could have developed into serious and substantive negotiations and prevented what happened. However, he was appointed Minister of State. It is even more unclear what they wanted when they carried out a violent change of power and, ignoring warnings, formed an illegitimate government.

Of course, the loss is great. The perpetrators of this great loss are many. The culprits are all those who for years opposed proposals to resolve the problem through negotiation and compromise. However, the first culprits are Kocharyan, Sargsyan and Pashinyan, who have taken responsibility. However, Pashinyan is and will remain the most guilty of all sinners. He bears not only his own guilt and his own responsibility. The burden of those who came before him is also on his shoulders. Because he became a continuer of the path chosen by his predecessors, not realising the danger, he tried to surpass them. He endeavoured to appear more uncompromising than they. By his irresponsibility, his ill-considered steps, his ill-considered statements and actions, he not only led us to this catastrophe, but he gave former sinners an opportunity to rid themselves of their own guilt and responsibility, to justify themselves. He became a lifeline for his predecessors. Now those who for 25 years did not even have a thought to solve the problem are frivolously saying that if it were not for Pashinyan, this catastrophe would not have happened, forgetting that they brought the catastrophe to the brink," writes human rights defender Vardan Harutyunyan.