The Authority Seems to Not Understand That the Issue of Artsakh is Not a Toy: 'Sasna Tsrer'

‘Sasna Tsrer’ pan-Armenian party has issued a statement saying: “Artsakh is part of Armenia and that’s it.” In contrast to this position, continuing negotiations based on the Madrid Principles, specifically the logic behind the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers on December 4 of this year, indicates that the current Armenian government is persistently advancing a line of concession and the subjectification of Artsakh instead of reaffirming the legal-political reality of Artsakh's belonging to the entire sovereign territory of Armenia. By adhering to the so-called legal-political concept of the 3rd Republic based on the Armenian SSR rather than the First Republic of Armenia, the current government automatically positions itself as an inheritor of previous treasonous and criminal regimes, thus becoming a losing and compromising player on the issue of Artsakh.

The current government seems to not understand that the issue of Artsakh is not a toy, but rather a question of the existence of Armenian statehood and the Armenian people. Therefore, it cannot become an object of double standards and games like other issues, for example, reforms in the judicial system or bringing the leaders of previous regimes to justice. It is impossible to declare Artsakh as part of Armenia in the presence of the entire Armenian community and the world while simultaneously continuing the subjectification of Artsakh, denying its belonging to Armenia in international platforms, and negotiating over the Madrid Principles, presenting absurd views on the participation of Artsakh in negotiations or the interests and will of the people of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Artsakh overlapping.

The regime of Serzh Sargsyan collapsed because the oscillation of the dual game inherited from previous administrations regarding the issue of Artsakh came to a halt. This oscillation can no longer be reactivated. Even the most highly trusted government will rapidly lose its legitimacy and meet the fate of its predecessor if it attempts to do so. The revanchist fifth column is precisely waiting for this opportunity to strike its final blow and plunge us back into the swamp of a nightmarish past.

There is only one way out: to solidify the completion of the de jure unification of Artsakh to the Republic of Armenia, a process murderously halted since 1991, as a paramount national agenda and to resolve the context of recognizing the territory of the Republic of Armenia that was seized and fragmented during the 1920-21 Kemalist-Bolshevik aggression and restoring its territorial integrity in the logic of de-occupation. In the meantime, it is necessary to abandon the destructive Madrid Principles for us, to use negotiations exclusively for the implementation of mechanisms to ensure control along the contact line, and simultaneously adopt a strategy to finalize the process of de jure unification of Artsakh, first removing the ban on the electoral rights of Armenian citizens registered in Artsakh and other artificial obstacles separating Artsakh from Armenia.