Peace as strategy Pashinyan bets on “real” politics

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in his address at the congress of the Civil Contract Party on September 20, made a number of statements and outlined the main priorities of the country’s state policy in the context of normalising relations with Azerbaijan.

First and foremost, the prime minister noted that after last month’s Washington talks, Armenia had entered an entirely new stage of its history thanks to the establishment of peace with Azerbaijan.

“This peace was established on August 8 in Washington, in the presence and with the support of US President Donald Trump, through the declaration adopted by me and the President of Azerbaijan. August 8 is the culmination, the peak of a lengthy process,” Pashinyan said, emphasising in particular that over the past year and seven months not a single soldier had been killed or wounded as a result of gunfire along the Armenia–Azerbaijan border.

“We must ensure that these 1 year and 7 months turn into 2 years and 7 months, 3 years, 4 years, 5 years, 50 years, 100 years, 200 years and beyond, and extend this to all the borders of the Republic of Armenia,” Nikol Pashinyan declared.

First, it should be noted that the optimistic outlook of the Armenian prime minister regarding the establishment of long-term peace in the region fully aligns with the peaceful agenda that Baku has promoted since the beginning of the post-conflict period. In this context, it is particularly telling that the statements by Pashinyan on the normalization of relations with Azerbaijan are based precisely on the ideology of a “Real Armenia,” according to which Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan.

It is worth recalling that this concept was initiated by the Armenian prime minister after he expressed his readiness to recognise Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. In February of this year, speaking from the podium of the Armenian parliament during a government session, he expressed the hope that his “Real Armenia” concept would become official for the entire nation and receive support in future parliamentary elections.

“I believe that the upcoming electoral processes should proceed precisely along this logic. The ‘Real Armenia’ concept should, through elections, become the official ideology of the Armenian people,” the Armenian leader said at the time.

Following the same logic, in August of this year, after the Washington talks, Nikol Pashinyan announced the possibility of holding a referendum on a new constitution for Armenia, assuring that the government is working on a revised draft of the Basic Law. Moreover, he even expressed his readiness to propose constitutional amendments if the Constitutional Court determines that the peace agreement with Azerbaijan contradicts the current Constitution of the Republic of Armenia.

Notably, during his address at the Civil Contract Party congress, the Armenian leader, drawing parallels between the “Real Armenia” and the former “ideology of patriotism,” stated that the latter had been imposed by the Soviet empire. In this context, particular attention should be paid to his attempt to justify his rash 2019 statement regarding the supposed “belonging of Karabakh to Armenia.”

“…I cannot forget that in 2019 I said: ‘Artsakh is Armenia, period.’ I had reasons to refer to this phrase before, but I believe it needs to be concluded, explained. Why, today, while experiencing the joy of peace, did I make that statement in 2019? The reason lies in the model of patriotism, the formula of patriotism I spoke about back in 2020. Now I am a patriot according to the model of patriotism entrusted to me by the mothers of Armenia. In 2019, I was a patriot according to the only model of patriotism that existed in Armenia at the time. That model was imposed by the Soviet empire, more precisely by its leaders—Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev,” the Armenian prime minister said.

At the same time, he also emphasised that before the emergence of the “Real Armenia” ideology, the imperial model of patriotism in the country essentially dictated: if you are a patriot and love your homeland, then seek your homeland outside Armenia—even if it is a Soviet republic.

In other words, the Armenian prime minister acknowledged that the previous “Miatsum” ideology was fundamentally flawed. And in this, he is undoubtedly correct.

Thus, through his statements at the ruling party congress, Nikol Pashinyan once again signalled that Armenia adheres to a peaceful agenda and to the Washington agreements reached last month. All of this indicates that the Armenian government is determined to meet Azerbaijan’s key demand by amending the Armenian Constitution through a referendum after the 2026 parliamentary elections. Theoretically, the prime minister recognised that this is the only way to preserve Armenian statehood. Whether Nikol Pashinyan will succeed in translating these goals into practical reality remains to be seen…