We Have Lost, Not to Azerbaijan, but We Have Brought Defeat Upon Ourselves: Levon Ter-Petrosyan at today's HAK Congress

The first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, attended today's congress of the Armenian National Congress (HAK). The attendees welcomed him with resounding applause and chants of 'Levon!' The president repeatedly asked his supporters to take their seats before delivering his speech in a self-interview format.

‘What is the real reason for the defeat in the Artsakh war?’ Ter-Petrosyan asked himself, before answering, ‘We have lost, not to Azerbaijan, but we have brought defeat upon ourselves. This is due to the reckless and irresponsible policies of the government over the past 23 years. The foundation for this defeat was laid in 1998, based on the false belief by those authorities to maintain the status quo and not yield an inch of land.

The conclusion of our defeat was marked by Pashinyan’s provocative statement that 'Artsakh is Armenia, period,' which was the end for Armenia and for Artsakh.’ Over the past 23 years, the authorities have completely ignored three crucial factors of realistic politics: the balance of forces, the presence or absence of allies, and most importantly, the irreversibility of time. In simple terms, the reality that what may be possible today may not necessarily be possible tomorrow. This is something very basic that our authorities have failed to comprehend; it is the alphabet of simple politics.

In other words, for 23 years, our authorities have shown the behavior of a gambler, striving to gain more, betting on new outcomes, thus losing what they had already won. I do not wish to elaborate further, as I intend to present an extensive article dedicated to this issue.