Beniamin Matevosyan: rejoice at the resettlement of Azerbaijanis and the surrender of “enclaves” — the EU will help

(The purpose of the EU’s new mission in Armenia)

The European Union’s decision to launch a new specialized mission in Armenia is being presented by Western politicians as yet another gesture of goodwill and a lifeline for the republic’s sovereignty. Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, was quick to announce that European experts would help Yerevan combat cyber threats, disinformation, and illegal financial flows.

All of this is neatly packaged as countering “external coercion” and pressure. However, behind the routine phrases about democratic solidarity and technical support lies a quite concrete, cynical, and harsh geopolitical calculation aimed at reformatting Armenia’s domestic politics. The true purpose of this mission, it appears, is exclusively political in nature and consists of a total purge of Armenia’s information space in the interests of the current government.

Nikol Pashinyan’s government faces an extremely difficult and explosive task: forcing society to accept new territorial and demographic concessions that are already openly on Baku’s official agenda. It can safely be assumed that the political essence of the new mission is to help Armenia’s leadership “delight” its own people with extremely unpopular decisions. The country’s citizens will have to accept the fact that the so-called “enclaves” will come under Azerbaijani control, and that Azerbaijanis will gain the opportunity for mass resettlement onto Armenian territory. Moreover, as part of this “European transit,” abandoning previous energy ties will be unavoidable, which will make it necessary to purchase gas at two to three times the current price. None of these challenges are inventions of critics — they are real items on the agenda that Yerevan must now legalize in the eyes of its own population.

Under these conditions, any public discussion of national security and any critical analysis of the concessions becomes deadly dangerous for the ruling regime. This is precisely where the EU-approved mission to combat disinformation comes onto the stage. Any public figures, experts, and journalists who dare to speak openly about the threats of territorial loss or economic catastrophe will instantly be labeled as “agents of influence,” “disinformers,” and “participants in hybrid warfare.”

EU support will lend this political purge the status of a fight for democratic values, legalizing the persecution of the opposition. This approach fits the logic voiced back in 2018 by John Bolton, then US National Security Advisor. During his visit, he stated directly that it was important for the Armenian people to free themselves from “historical patterns” for the sake of broader opportunities on the world stage. Today we see that what the Western overseers meant by abandoning historical stereotypes was precisely the surrender of national interests, the destruction of traditional alliances, and voluntary consent to dismantle elements of one’s own security for the sake of illusory Western approval.

After the next political cycles, the EU will help Pashinyan bring this destructive process to its logical conclusion. The new European mission will become not a shield against external threats, but a tool against internal resistance. With its help, Armenian society will be pushed into a sterile informational vacuum, where the surrender of territories, the resettlement of former adversaries, and economic decline will be made to seem like a historical blessing and a victory for democracy.

Think about it…