Political theatre and endless rhetoric in Yerevan The unsettling state of Armenian politics

"Throughout 2024, many events took place in Armenia that, unfortunately, led to nothing good for the country," Hayk Mamijanyan, leader of the "I Have Honour" parliamentary faction in the Armenian National Assembly, stated at a press conference. After this, the press briefing could have easily ended. The message was clear and fair. However, Mamijanyan felt compelled to elaborate, not only on the "general picture" but also on the "details." With the New Year holidays approaching, he had to create at least some illusion of a struggle for power for himself and his party members, offering them reasons to raise a toast.

So, Hayk stated that the outgoing year was marked by the "surrender of four villages in the Tavush region to Azerbaijan." It seems that Ayik hadn’t even reached the festive table yet but was already spouting nonsense, as if he had celebrated both the Old and New Year. The reality, however, is that Armenia did not "surrender" but rather returned four villages in the Gazakh district to Azerbaijan, which were part of the Azerbaijan SSR. In simple terms, this was a forced acknowledgement by the official Yerevan of an indisputable fact. The return of these four villages cannot, in any way, be linked to the delimitation and demarcation process, since, as officially confirmed by Armenia, these villages are part of Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory and were under occupation. Moreover, these villages are not enclaves, and therefore, Baku demands their immediate return, before the completion of the delimitation process.

Furthermore, the Armenian government has yet to return the village of Karki, which belongs to the administrative territory of the Sadarak district in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and was occupied in the early 1990s. So, Hayk is casting aspersions on Nikol Pashinyan and his team, claiming they haven't returned all Azerbaijani lands to their rightful owners. Of course, they will eventually return them—there's no avoiding that. And when that happens, Mamijanyan will have another reason to express his outrage.

However, one must acknowledge the validity of the speaker's words. Armenia and the global Armenian community have failed to achieve anything of significance in the past year. After all, it’s hard to call Nikol Pashinyan’s bicycle rides, either within the country or abroad, or his process of shaving off his beard, as major milestones in the recent history of Armenia! The only area where there was growth was trade turnover with Russia.

According to some forecasts, by the end of 2024, the trade turnover between Armenia and Russia could reach between 14 and 16 billion dollars. But there’s a catch. This statistic presents a truly absurd picture for all the Armenian, Ukrainian, European politicians, political analysts, and journalists who have passionately argued—both then and now—that Armenia is supposedly striving to join the "family of European democracies." It turns out that Pashinyan’s Armenia is economically aligned with Russia, not the EU!

And this alignment has been in place for quite some time. Since the change of power in Armenia in 2018, trade turnover between Armenia and Russia has increased fourfold by 2023. This figure is expected to rise even further by the end of this year. How? Through Armenia’s facilitation of Russia’s circumvention of Western sanctions. But neither Nikol Pashinyan nor his opponents are willing to acknowledge this openly. Hayk Mamijanyan is also silent on the matter.

He also didn’t express any sorrow or disappointment over the failure of the global Armenian community's plans to derail the UN Climate Conference COP29 in Baku. But, once again, his silence doesn’t change the fact of such a failure. Nor does it alter the numerous facts of Azerbaijan’s growing influence on the global political stage. What is perhaps most disheartening for the "honourable" Armenian politicians is that this process has been unfolding for many years—and will continue to do so. Regardless of what they may continue to lament about their "sorrowful affairs" in Yerevan.