You Do Not Have a Mandate to Speak on Behalf of the People of Artsakh: The Issue of Artsakh is Not Resolved, This is a Fact - Samvel Babayan

You do not have a mandate to speak on behalf of the self-determined people of Artsakh. You have no right to close their issue according to someone's political convenience. This was stated by the former commander of the Artsakh Defense Army, Samvel Babayan.

“The approaches of Nikol Pashinyan regarding the issue of Artsakh have long been well known. However, with his recent statement made in Germany, he crossed yet another dangerous line by claiming that those discussing the unresolved issue of Artsakh want a new war. Furthermore, he equated the right of the forcibly displaced people from Artsakh to return with the Karabakh movement, manipulating public consciousness. Therefore, when you state that those who speak about the Artsakh issue want a new war, you are not mistaken, but rather deliberately distorting reality: the issue of the people of Artsakh is not resolved. This is a fact, not a slogan. This is not a war; this is reality.

Those who voice unresolved issues do not want war. War is born from neglected problems. Unaddressed issues are un detonated mines. The threat of war arises when the authorities, based on political expedience, try to wrap defeat in a “peace” wrapper and silence all those who refuse to participate in this deception.

In almost every speech, you refer to Artsakh, but at the same time, you insist that it should not be discussed by alluding to the false narrative of “Western Azerbaijan.” Are you comparing a people who have self-determined by international law and have had statehood for three decades to a political fiction?

This has been the case for nearly three decades, everything has been done to make the people despise its own victory, because it has been presented as a burden, and today still as an obstacle on the path to a “peaceful future.” This is not a re-evaluation of history, but a systematic erosion of national self-awareness.

When you state that one of the reasons for state debt is the issue of forcibly displaced people from Artsakh, you are deliberately inciting internal enmity. By pointing the poor citizen to the Artsakh resident, you are not conducting social policy. You are sowing hatred. And you do this consciously. This is a mechanism for reproducing division within society.

Moreover, when talking about the support for forcibly displaced people from Artsakh, it would be appropriate to state how much money you have received under that name from international partners, how you have spent it, and why you do not let the elected representatives of Artsakh manage those resources.

Now, regarding your policy: you declared that “Artsakh is Armenia.” Then you said that you have no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the people of Artsakh. After that, you reaffirmed to your predecessors that you are the guarantor of the security of the people of Artsakh. Then you corrected yourself, stating that you are merely the guarantor of social security. You allowed the war to go out of control. You lost. You surrendered.

Subsequently, you ceased fulfilling your obligations towards the Artsakh Defense Army, yet you did not return the management of the army to Artsakh. At a critical moment, you opted not to interfere in the “internal affairs of Artsakh.” As a result, an entire people was left without a state, without status, without a future due to your decision... and took the path of exile. But in the Motherland, they were refugees - stateless, homeless, and abandoned. And today, you create no real opportunities for these people - neither housing, nor jobs, nor systemic integration.

Instead, in the “bastion of democracy,” you forbid speaking about your own rights and their possible protection.

You do not decide whether the issue of Artsakh is closed or open. Aliyev does not decide either. This is a geopolitical process beyond the two of you. But it should be understood that those who avoid resolving the issue will confront a larger and more dangerous conflict.

You do not have a mandate to speak on behalf of the self-determined people of Artsakh. You have no right to close their issue according to someone's political convenience. The people of Artsakh are endowed with natural rights. And no temporary political calculation has the right to restrict, negotiate, or silence those rights. Truth is not a call for war. Truth is the refusal to reconcile with defeat. And no matter how much you try to silence it, it will inevitably return - as a question, as a demand, and as a responsibility,” he wrote.