“Lessons” program the guest constitutionalist, political scientist, international scientist Vardan Poghosyan.

The main theses of the interview are below.

• Ilham Aliyev could not achieve success if he did not have a good basic education. Aliyev was no less educated than his father, he knew history very well. He was my seminarian during my studies in Moscow. During the exam, he asked different questions, which showed that a person knows good history. When a person with a high intellectual level has as an interlocutor someone who does not know history, is not normally trained, it is natural that he has an advantage over him. And it is clear that there would be a big contrast between him and Nikol Pashinyan. With Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev could not be so insolent, but when the other party was away from politics and he doesn’t understand anything about foreign policy in particular, you deal with him as you can:

• When in 2018 Nikol had started his movement, during a discussion, if you saw the EU ambassador at that time Piotr Svitalski, putting aside the diplomatic etiquette, how he spoke, you would think that the speaker was an opposition figure… You had to see what accusations he presented to the former government. Svitalsky openly defended Pashinyan and was openly guided by anti-Armenian interests.

• The nail of Pashinyan’s pre-election campaign is the so-called peace, which he allegedly established in Armenia, and secondly, the false thesis arising from it that if I am not there, there will be a war. If there is peace, why should a war start if one prime minister is replaced by another, if no one of the 19 political forces is now saying, as soon as I was elected, to bring back Artsakh or de-occupy the territories of Armenia through war, military means? It is obvious, isn’t it, that this “peace” is only between Aliyev and Pashinyan. Therefore, there is no Pashinyan, so there will be a war:

• Peace in the sense of international law has not been established between Armenia and Azerbaijan. That document, which contains many dangerous points for us, is not yet a signed contract. Therefore, the thesis that peace has been established between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a lie. There is an initialed document, for signing, Azerbaijan demanded to change our Constitution, to remove the Declaration of Independence from the preamble of the Constitution.

• With the example of Tavush, we saw what Pashinyan’s imagined demarcation was, when the territories of Armenia were unilaterally ceded. Now, if the enclaves are surrendered as well, which Aliyev demands, we find ourselves in isolation. We will have to look for new ways of communication with Georgia and Iran if the enclaves of Tavush and Tigranashen are surrendered.

• The only war-making party in Armenia is Nikol Pashinyan, because if he handed over territories again, the Armenian people will not come to terms with the consequences.

• Iran has now become a world power, and Iran will not allow western presence in this region. And in this case, it is obvious that if Pashinyan is re-elected, the danger of war will increase more than if the opposition forces come to power, whose pre-election programs envisage a very balanced foreign policy. Pashinyan is simply blackmailing his own people. The goal is to garner votes in his favor. And there is no national and state interest for Nikol Pashinyan. We are dealing with a pathological, chronic liar:

• Why should we believe that everything that Pashinyan promises now will come true, if starting from 2018 he only tells lies and causes problems? What he has done is historically unprecedented. Artsakh was a unique territory that was relatively little attacked by foreign forces and the overwhelming majority of the population has always been Armenian. Today, they say that Artsakh is not Armenian and force us to come to terms with that situation.

• We will pay for European smiles with our independence. What Pashinyan promised to the collective West, he will do if it was repeated. And in that case, we will no longer have subjectivity, we will not have a national state that will be able to protect our interests. And what he promised is obvious. After the Russian-Ukrainian war, the West has thrown away its mask and clearly says that its goal is to bring Russia to a strategic defeat. And for this they should act through the states allied to Russia. Zelensky is now in a very difficult situation, but Europe is trying to weaken it by using Ukraine to the end Russia. Moldova is theirs, now they are doing everything for Pashinyan to follow the path of the Ukrainians, to remove Russia from our region. But geography cannot be changed:

• Iran has changed now. There will be no status quo in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran will control both the strait and the entire region, which means that Iran will not allow Pashinyan to realize his intentions. If we bring the Americans here, we must keep in mind that we are bringing a state that is an enemy to Iran, which has always been friendly to us.

• Russia, unlike in 2021 during the elections, when he supported Pashinyan, now he is sending very clear diplomatic messages about what will happen to Armenia if Pashinyan is re-elected, at least a cold war with Russia, with economic and political consequences arising from it. Pashinyan’s policy is leading Armenia to a dead end, maybe even a hot war:

• The European Union has a European Parliament. The EC condemns Azerbaijan, its actions inside and outside the country, but where did Kaya Kalas run from Yerevan, where did Ursula von der Leyen run? They need gas, oil, energy. They will continue their pro-Azerbaijani policy because that is their interest.

• The opposition is doing very right when it raises the question of bringing 300,000 Azerbaijanis to Armenia, which has been voiced by Aliyev for a long time. If there is no such thing, why doesn’t Pashinyan objectively deny that information? Why doesn’t he deny it, answering Aliyev himself? If you are against it, you should say so directly that it will never happen. Pashinyan never says that Artsakh Armenians have the right to return to their homeland. Instead, Aliyev and his propaganda keep talking about Azerbaijanis coming to Armenia. It has never happened before that 300,000 Azerbaijanis lived in the territory of Soviet Armenia. Instead, 450,000 Armenians lived in Azerbaijan. Where? are they Do you demand it? He will not demand, because for him his only sanctity is his seat:

• The fate of Armenia will be decided in the June 7 elections. I want to emphasize very clearly that if we are going to have a Republic of Armenia, we can have the honor of bearing that name when we decide our own destiny. Today our fate is decided by a person who has nothing to do with Armenianness. Maybe he didn’t have it in 2018, but few people saw it. 

There are very simple formulas for June 7. the first is that you should go to the elections, because if you don’t go, you give an artificial advantage to Nikol Pashinyan, who possesses enormous resources, including administrative ones. If you don’t go, you’re contributing to her reproduction. It wouldn’t be elected in 2021 either, if people went to the polls. Going to the polls is necessary. If you want to get rid of Nicole, go to the polls. If you go to the elections, you should choose such a force that has a real chance to enter the Parliament. If you don’t do it, you give Nikol Pashinyan another chance. This is the second step. There are 3-4 parties that have a real chance to enter the Parliament: the “Strong Armenia” bloc, the “Armenia” bloc, the “Prosperous Armenia” and the “Wings of Unity” parties. Only in the case of voting for any of these 4 forces will we have the opportunity to avoid polluting votes. 

• 2021 if the voter thought to vote for Pashinyan, there will be no war, now he saw that after 2021 there were not only wars in the territory of Armenia, but also we lost Artsakh. Why should people now believe his promises of peace?

• In our Criminal Code, in my opinion, the crime of treason is unfortunately not formulated correctly. From a constitutional and legal point of view, any action by which you, being an official, violate the interests of your state and go to the side of the enemy knowingly or carelessly and fulfill his wishes, is state treason. From this point of view, Nikol Pashinyan and many members of the CP are state traitors. In particular, in 2024 Pashinyan and some members of his government went to alienate Armenian territories, which is a criminal act.

Details in the video.

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