By Harut Sassounian,

The highly anticipated meeting between high-ranking European and US officials and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took place in Brussels last Friday. Armenians excitedly hyped up the meeting long before it was held.

Some Armenians speculated vainly that Armenia would soon join the European Union, while others went as far as predicting Armenia would become a NATO member.

While Armenians are a wonderful people, they have had a major shortcoming during their entire history which is the lack of skill in diplomacy.

Even though Armenians suffered from invasions, occupation, massacres, and even genocide, they never understood that no foreign power would ever come to their rescue. They kept hoping that some country would save them, as if anyone had an obligation to do so. If Armenians never bothered to defend their own land, why would an outsider do such a thing? How can foreigners be more concerned about Armenia’s security and well-being than Armenians themselves?

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Armenians kept on believing for thousands of years the fairy tale that someone would come to their rescue. More recently, most Armenians believed that should they find themselves in real danger, Russia would save them. Naturally, this is the continuation of a long-standing wishful-thinking. Despite Armenian expectations, when Russia did not protect Artsakh in 2020 from Azerbaijan’s invasion, it was obvious that Russia had no obligation to defend Artsakh since it was not part of the Republic of Armenia. After all, the military alliance called the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was between Russia, four other ex-Soviet countries, and the Republic of Armenia, not Artsakh. But when Azerbaijan occupied portions of Armenia in 2021 and 2022, many more Armenians began to wake up to the fact that the CSTO would not lift a finger to defend Armenia’s territory.

One would have thought that once Armenians finally realized this fact, they would at long last conclude that no one would defend Armenia. Regrettably, that’s not what happened. They continued their eternal search for saviors. Due to the growing antipathy toward Russia, many Armenians started believing that the West (Europe and the United States) or Iran would now come to their rescue. After a while, when they see that neither Europe nor the US nor Iran are going to save them, they will then fantasize that India and China would defend them. Thus, they would go from country to country looking for a new protector. But Armenians continue to believe that others are obligated to defend them. Every country in the world protects its own national interests, except it seems Armenia. If Armenia had a competent leader, he would have taken emergency steps to arm the country to the teeth to defend itself. There are those who say that Armenia would never be able to protect itself from its more powerful enemies, no matter how much it arms itself. While this is true, the solution is not to leave the borders of Armenia unprotected so anyone can walk in. Armenia’s enemies must realize that if they dare to cross its borders, they would pay a heavy price. They should know that Armenia is not a public park that they can freely go in as they please.

Turning to the Brussels meeting of last Friday, naturally joining the European Union or NATO never came up. Armenia did receive pledges for a few hundred million dollars over the next four years, and a smaller amount from the United States economic aid. Naturally, this is a good thing. Who can argue against receiving a grant, assuming that the money will be wisely spent and not go to the pockets of pro-government contractors?

Money was allocated to Armenia for economic development and various other infrastructures, such as energy. That is also good. We then heard a lot of propaganda about Armenia being a democratic state. This was simply a lip service to keep Prime Minister Pashinyan happy. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken kept harping on promoting democracy in Armenia even though the US government pays no attention to such meaningless principles, except when it suits its own political and military interests. Otherwise, the United States would have imposed sanctions on Azerbaijan and Turkey long ago, due to their multiple violations of the democratic rights of their own population as well as those of Artsakh Armenians.

Armenia does not need political propaganda from the West. Given the continuous attacks by Azerbaijan on Armenia, even while the Brussels conference was taking place, what Armenia needs the most right now are weapons to defend itself from its deadly enemies, Azerbaijan and Turkey. If and when we lose our homeland, it would be meaningless to have improved structures or democratic rule. With neither the East nor West providing a security blanket for Armenia, Pres. Aliyev is reassured that he can do as he pleases with Armenia with no one lifting a finger to protect it, except for handing a fistful of dollars and a lot of useless praise.

“I want to take it back to the 1840s, to the real roots of hegemony, which is Great Britain. There was never a hegemon with such ambition and a curious view of the world. But Britain wanted to run the world in the 19th century and taught America everything it knew. Recently, I read a fascinating book by a historian named J.H.

Gleason, published by Harvard University Press in 1950. It’s a fascinating book called ‘The Genesis of Russophobia in Great Britain.’ The question is, where did England’s hate of Russia come from? Because it’s actually a little surprising. Britain has HATED Russia since the 1840s and launched the Crimean War that was a war of choice in modern Parliament—a war of choice by Palmerston in the 1850s—because it hated Russia. So, this author tries to understand where this hate came from, because it was the same kind of iterative hate that we have now.

And by the way, we hated the Soviet Union because it was Communist, but we hated Russia afterwards when it wasn’t communist. It doesn’t matter. So, it’s a deeper phenomenon, and he tries to trace where this hatred came from. The fascinating point is, Russia and Britain were on the same side in the Napoleonic Wars from 1812 to 1815, from the Battle of Moscow in Russia to Napoleon’s defeat in Waterloo. They were on the same side, and in fact, for many years, the relations weren’t great, but they were kind of normal. So, this historian reads every snippet of the newspapers, what’s written, of the speeches, to try to understand where the hatred arose.

The key point is there was no reason for it. There was nothing that Russia did. Russia didn’t behave in some perfidious way. It wasn’t Russian evil; it wasn’t that the tsar was somehow off the rails. There wasn’t anything except a self-fulfilling lather built up over time because Russia was a big power and therefore an affront to British hegemony. This is the same reason why the US hates China: not for anything China actually does but because it’s big. It’s the same reason, until today, that the United States and Britain hate Russia—because it’s big.

So, the author concludes that the hate arose around 1840 because it wasn’t instantaneous, and there was no single triggering event. The British got it into their crazy heads that Russia was going to invade India through Central Asia and Afghanistan—one of the most bizarre, phony, wrongheaded ideas imaginable—but they took it quite literally. And they told themselves this: ‘We’re the imperialists. How dare Russia presume to invade India?’ when it had no intention of doing so. So, my point is, it’s possible to have hate to the point of war and now to the point of nuclear annihilation for no fundamental reason. Talk to each other.”

Last week, RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, during a meeting with a CP party activist, compared his activity to the path taken by Christ, and in his message of the Holy Resurrection, he hinted at his “impeccable” course. (From here, by the way, it can be assumed that the members of the CP board perform the actions of the 12 apostles). Comparing any political or statesman with a spiritual leader (not to mention God) is, to put it mildly, inappropriate from the beginning. Those figures, even with the best intentions, are forced to be pragmatic and cynical, to say one thing today and the opposite tomorrow. Especially when it comes to such a head of state, during whose “reign” thousands of compatriots were killed, tens of thousands were deprived of their homes, and the enemy occupied a part of the state. A leader whose power is based on hatred and hostility towards the “formers”. Making one’s self like God cannot be a subject of political discussion, of course. But psychologists, I think, have something to do here. We are talking about the so-called “God complex”. which was first described at the beginning of the 20th century by the Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler, and then studied in detail, especially within the framework of the psychoanalytic school.

You can read Armenian version this address: https://www.aravot.am/2024/04/02/1409574/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

“Zhoghovurd” daily writes: “In 2024, the RA Prime Minister’s staff transferred money to the “Public Relations and Information Center” SNOC, which is known as the “fake” SNOC, twice in one day in 2024. The value of the first grant was 731 million 763 thousand one hundred drams, and the second one was 16 million 500 thousand drams.
The point is that it is still unclear why the SNOC should receive such large sums of money from the state budget when, apart from Nikol Pashinyan’s selfishness and attacking opponents with fakes, nothing is known about their activities in the public consciousness.
They pour their indignation through fake pages and in the form of complaints on the personal pages of public figures, insulting the honor and dignity of a person, even targeting their appearance and clothes.
We never saw any useful, pro-patriotic action from this SNOC, which receives millions from the state budget, even in the form of official summaries. Apparently, the summaries are for the internal audience of the executive, when the head of the government is reported about the fakers’ “victories”, “attacks” or “tactical retreats”.
“Maybe it was the “Center for Public Relations and Information” that gave Pashinyan the idea to engage in cheap analysis on the global “Tik-Tok” and to drag the members of the CP together with him to that Internet platform.”
Details in today’s issue of “Zhoghovurd” daily.

By Harut Sassounian

We all know the disasters that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan brought upon Armenia, in addition to the loss of Artsakh due to his incompetence.

We can cite Pashinyan’s many misguided actions and contradictory statements. Following his complete mismanagement of the military as Commander-in-Chief during the 2020 war, Pashinyan is now making sure that Armenians forget about the loss of Artsakh by wiping out its name from people’s memory.

Pashinyan took no action to protect Artsakh Armenians’ right to live peacefully in their millennia-old homeland. He also made no advance preparations to house the over 100,000 refugees from Artsakh, even though he knew that after the 2020 war Artsakh Armenians would eventually flee to Armenia.

To make matters worse, knowing that in future elections Artsakh Armenians will not vote for his political party, Pashinyan declared that they are not citizens of Armenia. These people for decades have had passports of the Republic of Armenia which were recognized not only by Armenia but also by foreign countries when they travelled overseas. Regrettably, thousands of Artsakh Armenians have since left Armenia for Russia to find shelter and work to be able to feed their families.

Furthermore, Pashinyan refuses to meet with any Artsakh official and opposes Artsakh Armenians holding protests in Yerevan to complain about their dire conditions in Armenia.

Here is the latest example of Pashinyan’s anti-Artsakh actions. Last week, the President of Artsakh Samvel Shahramanyan gave an interview to the French Le Figaro newspaper in which he said that the Republic of Artsakh continues to exist despite its occupation by Azerbaijan. He also stated that there is an Artsakh government-in-exile in Yerevan where his offices are located.

Shahramanyan’s words angered Pashinyan who immediately lashed back and warned that legal action will be taken against all those who talk about an Artsakh government-in-exile. Without any evidence, Pashinyan accused the Artsakh leaders of threatening Armenia’s national security. Not understanding the meaning of the term ‘government-in-exile,’ Pashinyan said that there is only one government in Armenia and there cannot be a second government, even though nobody was talking about creating a second government. If Pashinyan had any knowledgeable advisers, they would have informed him that there are in many countries dozens of ‘governments-in-exile’ which are universally accepted under international law.

In reality, the only person in Armenia who is threatening the security of Armenia is Pashinyan himself. Not only he has not defended the rights of Artsakh Armenians who are citizens of Armenia, but has also allowed Azerbaijan’s military to cross Armenia’s borders in 2021 and 2022. In addition, when Pres. Aliyev demanded that Armenia hand over to Azerbaijan four Armenian villages, Pashinyan warned their inhabitants that otherwise Azerbaijan will start a new war.

In his harsh reply to Shahramanyan, Pashinyan also threatened to take appropriate measures so that “foreign forces do not use certain [Artsakh] circles as a threat to the security of Armenia.” It is regrettable that Pashinyan is falsely accusing Artsakh Armenians of being manipulated by foreigners.

Pashinyan’s real problem is not Artsakh’s government-in-exile, but the fact that Artsakh Armenians are taking steps to keep the memory of Artsakh alive, which is highly embarrassing for him, since he is the one who gave it away. We have lost Artsakh to the enemy, but we should not erase it from our memory. We have an obligation not only to remember Artsakh, but transmit the dream of returning to Artsakh to the next generation. This is critical because if future generations do not know that Artsakh is an Armenian land, when the opportunity presents itself for its liberation, they will not take advantage of it, thus losing Artsakh forever, not because of what the enemy has done, but because of our own inaction.

In the meantime, we can only regret that Armenia’s Prime Minister, wittingly or unwittingly, is doing Pres. Aliyev’s bidding by trying to suppress even the memory and dream of Artsakh. Furthermore, it will be shameful if Pashinyan, acting on his threats, were to order the arrest of Artsakh leaders in Armenia, thus joining Baku in holding Artsakh leaders as captives.

With each passing day, Pashinyan is intensifying his anti-Armenian actions. How long will Armenians in Armenia and the Diaspora remain silent in the face of such self-defeating actions? When will Armenians wake up from their slumber, say ‘enough is enough’ and find a new competent leader to lead the nation out of this quagmire? Contrary to Pashinyan’s contention, Artsakh is not a closed issue. Armenians should not continue to sit with their arms folded and watch Armenia gradually disappear because of the misdeeds of one man!

Finally, it would be shameful if Shahramanyan and other Artsakh officials were to be forced by Pashinyan to leave Armenia and relocate their government-in-exile to a foreign country.

The situation in relations between Armenia and Russia does not inspire optimism due to the position of the Armenian leadership, which deliberately ruins relations with the Russian Federation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in an interview with Izvestia on 28 March.

“I have already had to comment on the current situation in Armenia, it certainly does not inspire optimism. The Armenian leadership, to put it bluntly, under far-fetched pretexts, twisting the history of the last three to three and a half years, is deliberately pursuing a course of collapsing relations with the Russian Federation,” he said.

According to Lavrov, this course of Yerevan is manifested in the slandering of Russian servicemen serving at the 102nd military base in Gyumri, border guards, as well as the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) as a whole.

Yerevan does not mention that it is the CSTO that has repeatedly defended Armenia’s interests in difficult situations and, in 2021, was ready to send its peacekeeping mission to the country to reduce the tension in its relationships with Azerbaijan, the Russian Foreign Minister said.

He recalled that the mandate of this mission was fully agreed upon at a ministerial meeting in Yerevan in the autumn of 2021, after which Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared the lack of consensus and summoned a similar EU mission to the country.

It was subsequently doubled, and now troops from Norway, Canada, and the United States are being sent there, turning the EU mission into a NATO mission, Lavrov added.

“This whole story of the past few years is being twisted by both Mr Pashinyan and his staff, the leadership of the Armenian parliament,” he said.