Are We Making Armenia an Occupant? Stupidity Must Have Limits – Aleksanyan

We need to understand what Azerbaijan is doing and why it is doing it. We should have this conversation with ourselves to understand our future actions. This was stated by Vahe Aleksanyan, a member of the National Assembly from the ruling Civil Contract party, in an interview with NEWS.am, commenting on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement that Azerbaijan is seeking revenge for what has been done to it over the last 30 years.

In response to the opposition's claim that Pashinyan's statement legitimizes Azerbaijan's aggressive actions, Aleksanyan said, “If we don’t do this, we won’t understand how to manage Azerbaijan's claims, which are often expressed by the President of Azerbaijan. This is a fact that needs to be confronted. This has nothing to do with legitimacy because only international law can grant legitimacy. Nothing else can give legitimacy—neither feelings of revenge nor other human psychological experiences.

Referring to the assertion that Nagorno-Karabakh has defended its right to self-determination, Aleksanyan dismissed the idea that Armenia has anything to do with it. He considered claims in this regard to be foolishness and absurdity. “So if we are talking about the motivations of Azerbaijan, does that make Armenia an occupant? Stupidity must have limits. In other words, Azerbaijan was claiming that Armenia had nothing to do with it, but when the Prime Minister stated that Azerbaijan has a feeling of revenge towards Armenia, they said, ‘Oh, then Armenia is involved!’ This is what comes from people who advocate for the document signed by Samvel Shahramanyan, which attributed the presence of an army in Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. By the way, recently, Shahramanyan made another extremely dangerous statement, claiming that until the very last day, the Artsakh Defense Army was subordinate to the Armenian army. This is what it means to represent Armenia as this or that—not what the Prime Minister said.”