Can Iran trust Pashinyan?

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gave an interview to Iran’s state-controlled TV organization (IRIB), in which he touched upon a number of issues related both to the agenda of bilateral relations and to more global regional issues.

Trying to convince his Iranian friends that a potential corridor through Armenia would not contradict the official Tehran’s interests, Pashinyan said that Yerevan would not participate in any actions against Iran.

Now let’s go through the facts and try to answer the question from the title: can Iran trust Nikol Pashinyan?

1. In November 2018, after a visit to Armenia by US National Security Advisor John Bolton, Pashinyan said that he did not rule out the possibility of closing the border with Iran due to geopolitical circumstances. Among other things, Bolton, who was in Yerevan on a visit in 2018, stated the need to revise “historical stereotypes,” including Armenia’s position on Artsakh, the problem of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, and the perception of the region’s actors in the “ally-enemy” formula. Since 2018, Pashinyan has been implementing exactly what Bolton talked about, and therefore it is logical to assume that at some point the border with Iran may be closed.

2. Promising that Armenia would not participate in actions against Iran, Pashinyan twice betrayed Armenia’s main ally, the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic: in 2020 and 2023. Moreover, Iran has lost a large section of the border with Artsakh, which Tehran has used for decades.

3. After the 44-day war in 2020, Pashinyan handed over part of the Goris-Kapan highway to Azerbaijan, which purposefully complicated cargo transportation from Iran through Armenia. If, under the pretext of delimitation, Pashinyan goes for the surrender of Tigranashen, the Armenia-Iran gas pipeline will be at risk.

4. As a result of the war, Israel is actively becoming familiar with part of the territories of Artsakh occupied by Azerbaijan, as evidenced by numerous media reports. Artsakh, surrendered by Pashinyan, has become a springboard that can be used for Israeli attacks on Iran.

5. Nikol Pashinyan, who promised “not to betray Iran”, did not support his strategic ally, Russia, in the war in Ukraine, repeatedly stating that Armenia is not Russia’s ally in this matter.

This raises the question: can Iran trust Pashinyan? Of course, Nikol Pashinyan could offer the Iranian leadership mediation or assistance in establishing contacts with Western leaders, but his influence on the global geopolitical arena remains questionable. All of his sponsors have either left the political arena or will soon leave it, and the ideology of extreme liberalism is gradually losing its hegemony.

Think about it.…