Pashinyan's Three Dangerous Confessions: Suren Surenyants

Political scientist Suren Surenyants made a Facebook post titled "Pashinyan's Three Dangerous Confessions." Today, on the occasion of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Nikol Pashinyan delivered a message highlighting three serious and dangerous "confessions":

1. The declaration contradicts the idea of statehood. He stated that it was born under the influence of the Karabakh Movement, which had been shaped by decades of socio-psychological effects sown by the USSR among Armenians. Thus, the foundation of independence is presented not as the will of our people for freedom, but rather as a calculated plan from Moscow.

2. Pashinyan hinted that the Karabakh Movement was a project instigated by the USSR. He claimed that through books, films, and presentations, the USSR imposed on us a "modelled patriotism," which allegedly led to the movement and the declaration. This characterization not only belittles the national movement but also presents it as a manipulation by a foreign empire. Essentially, the most primal manifestation of popular will and national unity—the Karabakh movement—becomes, in Pashinyan's view, an intrigue and scripted game of the USSR. This is a gross distortion of historical memory and an insult to the generation that fought for Armenia's path to independence and the victory in the first Karabakh war.

3. He confessed he could have prevented the 44-day war but chose not to. According to him, the only way to avoid war was through concessions, but he refused that path, claiming that war endangered independence less than compromises did. Essentially, according to Pashinyan's flawed logic, a war resulting in thousands of casualties, loss of territory, and the undermining of state structures can serve independence more than complex but possible diplomatic solutions.

Today, we have a prime minister who is trying to present the glorious past movement and heroic battles as a conspiracy of the USSR, the Declaration of Independence as an obstacle to statehood, and the 44-day catastrophe as the "guardian of independence." This is not only a falsification of history but also a dangerous devaluation of the foundations of statehood. The reality is that a people with a state does not sacrifice its existence for false illusions of "preservation." A state-holding people builds peace, strengthens institutions, and defends its independence not through adventures and false ideologies but through responsible politics and national unity.