Artsakh Has Never Been in Such a Weak State and With Such Low Subjectivity

Former President of the Artsakh National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan wrote on his Facebook page: "The catastrophic war that began six months ago and lasted for 44 days has so muddled our thoughts and souls that it seems meaningless to talk about any other topic. Meanwhile, exactly one year ago, the elections that took place around this time largely predetermined the future of Artsakh. We witnessed a divided society (similar to the example of Armenia), an unprecedentedly populist pre-election period (where the similarities are not hard to find), and an incomprehensible post-election arrangement (where Artsakh showcased ‘masterclass’ politics by forming a coalition between the government and ‘radical opposition’).

Chronological details are no longer interesting. From the middle of the pre-election campaign, the pandemic disrupted the scheduled meetings, five independent candidates were replaced by 14 candidates in the presidential election race, and the favored political force and candidate did not need pre-election meetings (their campaign had begun in January 2019 and everything was finished for them by January 2020); this list can go on.

What can we glean or synthesize from these details? Judging by the election results and subsequent developments, we can easily organize the main conclusions, the enumeration of which already indicates the evident sorrow of the situation:

a) With the nationwide elections on March 31, 2020, for the first time in Artsakh, we witnessed overt manifestations of dismantling the political field through ignoring classical political science rules and undermining public solidarity; b) After two years of resistance, the ruling elite of Armenia succeeded in bringing to power in Artsakh the political groups meant to realize all the extravagance of the ‘velvet revolution’ in the second Armenian republic as well; c) The war waged against the Republic of Artsakh by Azerbaijan and its gathered terrorist coalition was greeted with weakened national immunity, divided, and, overall, it was due to this trajectory that we found ourselves in a state of national fiasco.

The strength of Artsakh has always been its independence. Artsakh has never been in such a weak state and with such low subjectivity.”