‘As Long as This Government Remains, the War Will Continue’: Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan

“Politics, as it stands here, does not exist in terms of negotiations. Our desire, our program is also for them to return to real negotiating processes and the negotiating table,” said Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, leader of the ‘Tavush for the Homeland’ movement, in an interview with foreign media.

His Grace noted that today Armenia has absolutely nothing to say in this relationship, no compromise mood, and no even mutual recognition of territorial integrity.

“Therefore, negotiations as such absolutely do not exist; there are impositions, demands, threats of force, and this cannot in any way be the basis for peace,” the Archbishop stated.

He emphasized that the war, ongoing since 2020, has not ceased and continues relentlessly: “As long as this government remains, the war will continue. Some characterize it as a creeping war. We see this from the events in Tavush. Naturally, our desire is to stop the war and enter into a real peace process, not an imitative peace. Our program is to stop the war, to achieve a true peace that will no longer be violated. We come to establish peace, to eliminate the entire existence of destructive war.”

The Archbishop pointed out that he does not believe this government has a change of vector problem, but rather what we see is spontaneous, event-driven relations.

“Our goal and program is to have stable, reliable, long-term, positive, constructive relations in all directions with all partners. There is an important key detail here—an Armenian agenda. Everyone should contribute to the interests of Armenia and the Armenian people.”