After the formation of the new parliament in 2021, National Assembly (NA) MP Tigran Abrahamyan twice sent a question to the government regarding six settlements of Kashatagh region of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)—including Berdzor town and Aghavno village —which means that the topic was raised. He was told that everything would be discussed with the public; nothing would be done in secret. Former MP, political scientist Tevan Poghosyan stated about this in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am.
“[But] now it turns out that these issues were discussed, they have done some things. Did they inform the public? Unfortunately, it turns out [that] the policy is the same, they keep everything secret, then say ‘We will be held accountable.’ And maybe you should be held accountable for not being able to show a creative approach as to what you should have done to use the issues of interpreting the text of the November 9 [2020 trilateral] statement in the right way because an ‘alternative road’ is written, it is not written [that] an alternative Lachin corridor will be opened, which means that the Lachine corridor should remain as it is; several corners, maybe bridges, tunnels can be built inside it. That is, if you set a goal for Berdzor [(Lachin)] to remain, then I’m sure they would have found a way to keep it,” said Poghosyan, again expressing his conviction that it was possible to keep Berdzor under Armenian control.
“I’m not even saying that there should have been a project within three years. Three years have passed, but we see that they are building a road from the side, and they are trying to ‘sell’ us that the quality is better. I have spoken with specialists; they say that in the case of this new road, the main heights will remain with Azerbaijan in terms of control of that road. What is safe about it? There was no intention to keep Berdzor, the goal was to hand [it] over; for that, everything was done this way. Now, whether they had agreed or did it out of fear, what difference does it make to us at this point? Only new defeats should be expected from the defeated [Armenian] authorities,” he emphasized.
Tevan Poghosyan is convinced that there will be no peace, as it has not happened in the last thousand years.
“The peace agreement is a piece of paper. Syria and Turkey have also signed agreements, as have Russia and Ukraine. Be more afraid of that ‘era of peace;’ and the example is Nakhichevan, which was completely de-Armenianized in 50 years.”
He emphasized that a statesman who is concerned about the interests of Armenia should have realized that he should step down in order not to allow others to advance their interests as they wish—because they do it through him.
“The best example of that was given by [First President] Levon Ter-Petrosyan in 1998. That person opened the door so that we could advance our interests in the international arena for 20 years.”
And when asked about the probability of a new war at this moment, Tevan Poghosyan responded: “It can start at any moment. The law, “If you want peace, prepare for war” is a law of nature. Now we [i.e., Armenians] have decided to go against the laws of nature and wonder if it will work. It won’t work!”