When will the word “Artsakh” be banned in Armenia?

In his first and only interview, Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan stated that “the return of Armenians to Karabakh is necessary for the world powers and even Azerbaijan.” And to prove his words, he cited arguments on geopolitical topics.

However, before discussing the interests of the geopolitical actors in the region, it would be more correct to assess the domestic political situation and cast away illusions that Pashinyan’s Armenia will create minimal conditions to preserve “the remnants of the institutions of Karabakh statehood.”

The real situation is that no Artsakh institution is preserved in Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan’s Ambassador-at-Large, Edmon Marukyan, declares that no institute of Artsakh will work in Armenia since it is a matter of national security. According to Marukyan, or rather, Pashinyan, if there is “the Artsakh government in exile and the Artsakh parliament in Armenia,” then Baku may perceive it as a “manifestation of revanchist sentiments,” a “provocation against Azerbaijan” that will provoke the Aliyev regime to wage a new war against Armenia.

But the truth is that Azerbaijan can consider almost anything as a “provocation”, including the reform of the army, the purchase of weapons, the working nuclear power plant in the country, the absence of maps of “ancient Azerbaijan” in history textbooks, the desire to increase the population of the country to 5 million people, and so on down the list.

Let us recall that after the 44-day war, Pashinyan and his team repeatedly said in their interviews that “Azerbaijan started the war because Armenia began to actively reform its army and raise the economy, so in order to stop this growth, Baku started the war.” According to Pashinyan’s logic, economic growth can also provoke a war, an excellent excuse for a failed economic policy.

Baku considers the very fact of the existence of Armenian statehood in the neighborhood of the Azerbaijani state to be the main threat to Azerbaijan. Aliyev understands perfectly well that without Armenia’s military, political, and economic assistance, Artsakh would not have been able to exist since 1994 and effectively fight Azerbaijani aggression. This is why the ultimate goal of Azerbaijan is to disband the Armenian statehood, since the very fact of its existence in some historical period may create conditions for the revival of Artsakh, or at least the return of Armenians to their historical homeland, with clear guarantees of rights and security provided by their status.

A lot of people in Armenia have not understood that it is the weakness and the inability to stand up for the national interests that provoke Azerbaijan to put forward more and more demands towards Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan’s inability to build partnerships with Iran and Russia, which could ensure Armenia’s security “on the ground” and could help keep Artsakh Armenian, has left Armenia without allies. It is this weakness that allows Azerbaijan to sabotage the negotiations, not to comply with the decisions of various international agencies, and to put forward new demands against Armenia. The main reason is the weakness rather than the presence of certain Artsakh institutions in Armenia.

A lot of people in Armenia have not understood that Baku today sees a chance to “re-establish Armenian statehood in the South Caucasus” by transforming it into a quasi-state controlled by Azerbaijan. Baku wanted and still wants to get not only Karabakh but also to make Armenia the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, that is, a puppet quasi-state under its control.

Many have not understood that, which is why today we have to ask: When will the word “Artsakh” be banned in Armenia?