To those who still doubt that the war and the post-war disasters – the depopulation of Nagorno-Karabakh, the occupation of Armenia’s sovereign territories, and the compliant acceptance of all of Azerbaijan’s demands – could have been avoided if the person leading the state had any understanding of diplomacy, foreign policy, and the value of words, I simply recommend listening to just one part of Pashinyan’s speech,” former Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan wrote, commenting on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s speech at the European Parliament.
“A man went to the podium of the European Parliament and declared that the bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church had violated certain spiritual rules known only to him, that they are agents of influence, and that they seek to undermine his ‘peace.’
If you cannot imagine what an absurd – at best ridiculous, and at worst contemptible – impression such remarks may have made on those sitting in the hall, I would struggle to describe it in words.
And if you can imagine it, then it is not difficult to understand that since 2018, during the negotiations over Artsakh, before the war, during the war, and in the post-war period up to the present day, the country has been led by a person who has failed to grasp what should be said and what should not be said; what is expected of a statesman; what no one is interested in hearing; and what ultimately reveals weakness, ignorance, fear, and sheer incompetence.
The answer to why Armenia has found itself in its current state lies precisely in this simple reality,” he wrote.
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