The 'Peace Crossroads' Will Not Serve Armenian Interests in the Current Situation, Clearly States Armen Ashotyan

Armen Ashotyan, the Vice President of the Republican Party of Armenia, has published another article from the 'Nubarashen' Penitentiary. Below, we present it:

“In recent days, Nikol Pashinyan 'shone' at two international events, giving an interview to the American The Wall Street Journal and participating in an international conference in Tbilisi. The substantive and eventful nature of this concert is anchored in Pashinyan's typical tripartite framework of active ignorance, chronic anti-Russian sentiment, and combative unpatriotism.

The security paradigm proposed by Pashinyan in an interview with the American publication forced Bzezhinski, Suu Kyi, Bismarck, and Machiavelli to turn in their graves. Certainly, security is much more than just armed forces, and this is a textbook truth. Pashinyan's declaration is essentially an admission that since 2018, he has been consciously and systematically dismantling Armenia's and Artsakh’s security architecture, not only by disrupting military recruitment and purging personnel but also by deliberately undermining other components of security.

Since 2018, Armenia’s foreign policy began to deviate, the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation format has been paralyzed, and allied relations with Russia have been targeted. Concurrently, the ideological foundation of the country’s security was uprooted, dividing the Armenian people, diminishing societal immunity against misinformation and fake news, and so on. It is no coincidence that months before the 44-day war, Armenia’s security strategy was amended and amputated, from which the concept of the Republic of Artsakh and any references to national interests were removed as early as July 2020.

The security vision presented by Nikol in the interview is the result of brainwashing typical of an 18-year-old participant in a PEACE BUILDING primitive seminar rather than that of a state leader. The babbling in the style of 'Peace, Friendship, Chewing Gum,' even more so in a turbulent and boiling world, reminds one of the death knell of the Armenian people rising willingly to the altar of geopolitical rituals. If Nikol's security vision actually governed the world, there would not be around 200 independent states, no empire would collapse, and the Armenian people would have ceased to exist long ago and would not have made it to the 21st century.

The separation of the Artsakh issue from the Armenian-Azerbaijani agenda was disastrous for Artsakh. Now, relying on this separation is becoming catastrophic for the Republic of Armenia itself. The deepening crisis in Armenian-Russian relations is masked under the phrase 'balancing and diversification,' where Nikol is deceiving again. Balancing and diversification are achieved IN FILLING something, not IN ACCOUNTING. However, the current foreign policy is essentially selling the capital of Armenia-Russia relations cheaply on Western platforms.

'Escaping from Russia through the West to sit in Turkey's lap' — this is Pashinyan’s formula for security adventurism.

Let me make a few observations regarding Nikol’s participation and speech at the international conference in Tbilisi. Aside from the grotesque and scandalous map presented as Armenia, which sparked heated debate, there are other circumstances. I remind you that at the same time an expanded meeting of the EAEU Intergovernmental Council took place in Bishkek, attended by the Prime Ministers and Ministers of more than 20 countries. Pashinyan's boycott of this meeting further deepens the Armenia-Russia crisis, at least for the reason that while Armenia had thrown stones at the CSTO or CIS, there had been no diplomatic demarches concerning the EAEU yet.

Pashinyan's participation in the event in Tbilisi is also strange for another reason. This is the second time Aliyev has refused to meet with Pashinyan: first in Granada, and then in Brussels. Under such circumstances, it was a matter of dignity to at least not be seen at the same platform with a lower-ranking Azerbaijani official after all that. At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day he finds himself in the same format with Hikmet Hajiyev and Tural Ganjaliyev.

It is evident that the 'Peace Crossroads' discourse will not serve Armenian interests in the current situation. Efforts to brand it, to present it in a new packaging, resemble attempts to sell a turd as chocolate. However, let us, for a moment, imagine that Nikol is right, for instance, that this project is indeed pro-Armenian and has regional and global significance. In today’s world, there are only five players interested in logistical-communication mega-projects with political and financial resources. Let’s examine them one by one:

China - Belt and Road Initiative: Nikol's 'softening' does not only lack a place in this package but cannot have one because the current geopolitical positioning of Armenia does not align with China’s interests.

Russia - North-South Project: Russia not only has its own plans in the region but is also in a deepening crisis with Nikol's Armenia.

India: India has logistical diversification issues, particularly exacerbated amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. However, it will not unilaterally enter into new projects, especially when the real prospects of the North-South are becoming clear.

G7 and the European Union: They have their global projects, respectively, PGI (Partnership for Global Infrastructure) and Global Gateway. However, both, being collective Western projects, will not include beneficiary countries like Russia and Iran.

From the analysis, it becomes clear that only Turkey will remain in the background, and even then, in a very selective manner with its own priorities. Therefore, it is evident that Nikol's 'Peace Crossroads' is not so much a proposal to bring peace to Armenia as it is a suggestion to turn us into a regional pawn once and for all.”