Nikol Pashinyan Did What No Other Armenian Leader Has Done, Azerbaijani Journalist

Nikol Pashinyan is not associated with any hopes for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Azerbaijani journalist Sevinc Osmanqizi during a discussion at Georgetown University in Washington. She is forced to live abroad due to persecution in her homeland.

“He visits the occupied Shusha, enjoys happy wine, and dances. He has already visited the occupied territories of Azerbaijan 3 or 4 times—something no Armenian leader has done. If you are conducting peaceful negotiations, you shouldn’t visit occupied territories, and Pashinyan has even stated that this is Armenian land,” Osmanqizi stated.

According to her, the current status of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue benefits both the Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities: “Authoritarian leaders need an enemy, and if there isn’t one, they create that enemy to rally people. I believe both Azerbaijan and Armenia are doing this.”

At the discussion, former Voice of America correspondent and founder of Alik Media in Georgia, Arsen Khachatryan, who was previously an advisor to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, noted that Sevinc Osmanqizi is somewhat mistaken. He asserted that while the previous regime in Armenia indeed used the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to maintain power, the current authorities no longer need to do so. “The Velvet Revolution in Armenia changed the context of the conflict and many other things in the region,” Khachatryan believes.