By Wally Sarkeesian

In every nation’s history, there comes a moment when the people must ask whether their leaders serve the nation or serve themselves. For Armenians, that question has grown sharper in recent years as painful events unfolded around Artsakh, Syunik, and the broader struggle for sovereignty. Many now fear that instead of protecting the homeland, the political leadership has chosen the easier path of compromise, cooperation with adversaries, and suppression of the very citizens who once defended the nation’s dignity.

At the heart of the frustration lies a sense of betrayal. Armenia’s leadership once claimed it lacked the mandate to negotiate over Artsakh, insisting that the people’s will could not be bargained away. Yet after the disastrous war of 2020, that very stance collapsed. Negotiations shifted toward territorial concessions, and the narrative turned from safeguarding Armenian rights to managing surrender in the name of “peace.”

But peace has not followed. Instead, Armenians have seen the erosion of national security, the hollowing out of political accountability, and a campaign of pressure against some of the country’s most successful business figures—men and women who, in years past, devoted resources to Artsakh’s survival. Rather than being celebrated as patriots, they became scapegoats in a new political order where loyalty to the ruling elite seemed more important than loyalty to the nation.

Meanwhile, the adversary across the border boasts of military might and spreads Armenophobic rhetoric unchecked. Armenia’s silence in the face of such hostility feels less like diplomacy and more like acquiescence. When leaders speak of “historic opportunities for peace,” many Armenians hear only the echo of past betrayals: the November 2020 capitulation, the quiet surrender of borderlands, and now the chilling prospect of deeper concessions in Syunik.

The spectacle is bitter. While political leaders stand smiling beside their counterparts, Armenians see their own people—entrepreneurs, community builders, defenders of Artsakh—treated as expendable. The image is not one of peace, but of conspiracy: two powerful hands raised together, while ordinary Armenians and patriots are left behind bars, both figuratively and literally.

What is at stake is larger than the fate of any single leader or oligarch. It is the question of national dignity. Can Armenia survive when its most capable voices are silenced? Can Artsakh’s legacy endure when the defenders of its cause are punished, not honored? Can peace be trusted when built on secrecy, silence, and the imprisonment of those who stood for Armenian survival?

History is unforgiving. Those who trade sovereignty for short-term security often discover that they lose both. If today Armenia appears weaker, more fractured, and more vulnerable, it is not because of the Armenian people, but because of the choices of a political elite that mistook submission for strategy.

For many Armenians, the dream remains the same: a free, secure homeland where leaders defend rather than betray, where businessmen who supported Artsakh are recognized rather than persecuted, and where peace is built on dignity rather than capitulation. Until then, the silence of the powerful will only deepen the anger of the people—and the shadow of betrayal will haunt Armenia’s future.

By Wally Sarkeesian

Armenian Ruthless Dictator Nikol Pashinyan has transformed Armenia’s security landscape in ways that raise serious concerns about the country’s democratic future. While the military has been steadily weakened, the police have been expanded into a formidable force—larger than the army itself and trained with the assistance of foreign governments. This shift has not only undermined Armenia’s defenses but has also consolidated a domestic apparatus designed to protect Pashinyan’s rule rather than the nation.

The scale of his power is symbolized by his outsized motorcade—reportedly larger than that of the President of the United States. Such excess reflects more than personal vanity; it underscores the extent to which state resources are being directed toward securing the leader rather than serving the people.

Most troubling are Pashinyan’s warnings to the public: support his proposed peace treaty or prepare for revolution. This is not the language of a statesman seeking national unity but of a ruler confident in his ability to crush dissent. Over the past seven years, thousands of Armenians have been imprisoned for little more than voicing opposition. Today, prisons hold political detainees ranging from religious leaders to prominent business figures.

Armenia now faces a stark question. Will its people continue to endure a government increasingly accused of serving foreign interests, or will they find the unity to reclaim their democratic voice? The answer will define not only Armenia’s present but its future as a sovereign nation.

By Wally Sarkeesian

Conversation Part 2 — One Party for Armenians

I have never in my life joined any political party or organization — and that’s exactly why I can speak freely. I’ll tell you why: in Armenia, political parties are not built to serve the people. They are built to divide them.

Seventeen parties… fifty parties… one hundred parties — the number doesn’t matter. The result is always the same: chaos, division, weakness. Pashinyan mastered the “divide and conquer” strategy, and he played it to perfection — Armenia paid the price.

And if that wasn’t enough, we have twenty more so-called organizations in the diaspora, each pulling in its own direction, tearing our nation apart like vultures over a carcass.

This madness must end.
One Armenia. One voice. One power.

Armenia must adopt a Swiss-style government, where the president and prime minister serve only one term — one year — before rotating. No one should hold power long enough to corrupt it.

Because with multiple parties, we will never win.
Division is our greatest enemy.
Unity is our only hope.
And united — we cannot be defeated.

By Wally Sarkeesian

Part 1: Artsakh Liberation Is Possible — So Is Nakhichevan

Some people doubt it, but it’s absolutely doable. The first step — the most important step — is removing and investigating the criminal in power. We must find out exactly how the Turks recruited him, how the plan for the 2020 war was crafted between him, Aliyev, and Turkey.

Armenia wasn’t defeated by its people or its soldiers — it was betrayed by its leaders. This betrayal has divided Armenians like never before. You can see it everywhere, even in online posts — Armenians swearing at each other, driven apart by the hatred sown by Pashinyan’s regime.

What Armenia needs now is leadership that can unite the people. Whoever comes to power must also embrace the Diaspora — the way Israel does. In Israel, the government is filled with people from the Diaspora, bringing expertise and global perspective. Armenia must drop its prejudice against the Diaspora and bring in the best minds from the U.S., France, Russia, Canada, and beyond to build a new government and a modern system.

The corrupt police system must be dismantled. Keep only a small police force for traffic and civilian needs — the rest should be in military uniform, sent to the borders, trained, and prepared for war. Armenia doesn’t need oppressive internal policing. Armenians are a peaceful people; they know each other, they are family and neighbors.

This is just the beginning of the conversation. There’s much more to say — and much more to plan. Join the conversation…

Armenia have gain nothing from the so called peace:
In 2002, the two nations discussed a land swap, in which Armenia would gain access to Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan would gain access to Nakhchivan through a southern corridor (then called the “Meghri corridor”).

Now that Nagorno-Karabakh has been recaptured by Azerbaijan, it’s unclear what Armenia will gain in return for giving Azerbaijan access to this southern corridor. This might hinder the deal’s implementation, since Azerbaijan wants Armenia to amend its constitution to “eliminate territorial claims against Azerbaijan.” If Armenians don’t see any upside, the referendum to amend the constitution may fail.

By Wally Sarkeesian

Trump’s TRIPP Corridor: Whitewashing Genocide, Burying Section 907, and Turning Armenia Into a Geopolitical Battleground”

Trump has single-handedly whitewashed the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh, buried Section 907 of the U.S. Freedom Support Act, and handed Azerbaijan and Turkey their long-coveted corridor — all under U.S. oversight. Branded as the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), this isn’t a harmless transit link. It’s a NATO-aligned lifeline connecting Turkey and Israel to Azerbaijan through Armenia’s sovereign territory, deliberately excluding Russia and Iran. Both powers will see it as a provocation they cannot ignore, cutting across their vital North–South trade route.

For Trump, it’s a cheap geopolitical stunt — a photo op to score points and pressure Moscow over Ukraine. For Armenia, it’s a high-risk gamble that could turn the country into a battlefield in the looming U.S.–Russia–Iran confrontation. And the agreement’s talk of “building trust” between Armenia and Azerbaijan? That’s pure cynicism, when one side has committed blockade, invasion, and genocide without consequence.

By Karnig Kerkonian

A PAPER SHIELD. #Armenia just published the “peace” agreement initialed with Azerbaijan in Washington. Unfortunately, it will not halt an already-emboldened #Azerbaijan from completing its conquest of Armenia. You see, the real story is what’s not in the text. There is no mention of #NagornoKarabakh, no sign of Armenian #POWs, no word of international security guarantees, and no Azerbaijani withdrawal from Armenian territory. This is the gift of Armenia’s appeasement-based approach to peace. “If we just lower the bar on Artsakh,” the Armenian PM said in April 2022, “the international community will help us.” Three years on, he’s not even permitted to use the word “Artsakh”. That said, the “peace” treaty does a few things really well. It normalizes Azerbaijan’s ongoing (and multiple) military aggressions against Armenia and #Artsakh. It whitewashes Baku’s ongoing genocidal intent (remember the exterminator in the Hazmat suit, the blockade and ethnic cleansing, the ongoing destruction of Armenian cultural heritage, the “Western Azerbaijan” narrative). And it lays bare Armenia in a hyper-militarized South Caucasus (no foreign troops in Armenia, while Azerbaijan surely will ask Turkey and Israel to take their weapons, logistics and foreign intelligence and just leave). How can this go wrong for Armenia? The ridiculous double-speak in the text is almost as blatant as the spinsters trying to put lipstick on this pig. For example, the new partners in “peace” claim to champion consistency with international law in the text—yet, in the very same breath, they agree to withdraw the international cases against Azerbaijan and kill enforcement of the #ICJ decisions which hold Baku in violation of international law. Yup, that makes sense. Sadly, the world has been here before. Hitler signed the Munich Treaty promising peace—right before engulfing Europe in war and genocide, slaughtering millions of human beings. That “peace” treaty polled quite well in Europe in 1938—until, of course, it enabled the execution of the Holocaust. The lesson? Appeasement does not work, particularly where there is genocidal intent. History really is a tough teacher. And I am afraid that, here too, history will prove more dispositive as to what comes next than this paper shield ever will.

By Wally Sarkeesian

Since 2020, I warned that talk of “enclaves” would turn Armenia into another Palestine—surrounded on all sides, roads and borders in enemy hands. Now, village after village in Tavush is gone, and Syunik faces dismemberment through a so-called “corridor.” This is not diplomacy—it is national suicide.

Our homeland is being carved into a pawn for foreign powers, a Pan-Turkic pipeline, a hub for drugs and money laundering, and a testing ground for cultural and spiritual sabotage. The Armenian Apostolic Church is under attack, our sovereignty is dissolving, and the sellout government smiles as it signs our death warrant.

This is no longer politics. This is a civilizational war. There is no middle ground—either the traitors fall, or Armenia does.

By Wally Sarkeesian

Deep cultural and political polarization

• Red vs. Blue, rural vs. urban, progressive vs. conservative.
• Increasing hostility online and offline.
• People no longer just disagree — they distrust and dehumanize each other.

Media echo chambers

• People live in different “information realities.”
• Social media amplifies conflict and outrage.
• Algorithms push division for profit.

Institutional breakdown or mistrust

• Faith in government, elections, courts, police, and media is at historic lows.
• Both sides believe the other is “breaking the system.”

Nonviolent conflict turning personal

• Families divided.
• Violence in protests.
• Political violence (like Jan. 6 or attacks on judges) is viewed as justifiable by some.

Not in the traditional sense of North vs South or organized militias

• A society fractured along ideological lines
• Where peaceful coexistence is constantly strained
• And where people see their fellow citizens as enemies…

Then yes, you could call it a “cold” or “silent” civil war.