Pashinyan said at YSU, ‘When we lost Artsakh, we finally gained independence for Armenia’ – Hovhannes Shamrikyan

The previous day, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Yerevan State University, where he presented the ideology of “Real Armenia” to students and faculty members. Among those present was a third-year student of the Department of International Relations, Hovhannes Shamrikyan. In an interview with Alpha News, Hovhannes Shamrikyan shared the details of the meeting.

“I asked the Prime Minister if, knowing how things would unfold, he would still have participated in the 2018 revolution. He said yes, and I saw confidence in his eyes and realized that he felt no regret whatsoever. In my speech, I said that I disagreed with his views on the idea of ‘Real Armenia’, as well as his stance on Artsakh and the Armenian Genocide. Then I asked if he had the same views when he was a student, to which he replied, ‘I am not even the Nikol Pashinyan I was a week ago,’” Shamrikyan said.

According to Shamrikyan, at a certain point, the meeting turned into a monologue, as Pashinyan became visibly emotional.

“He said another alarming thing: ‘When we lost Artsakh, we finally gained independence for Armenia.’ But he did not allow me to react, asking to finish his speech. After that, as with his other illogical statements, I noticed a change in the expressions of the students and others present. He also spoke about the former authorities, mentioning that he used to be an ideological supporter of Dashnaktsutyun. Then, overwhelmed by emotion, he turned visibly flushed, and at that moment, the meeting ceased to be a student dialogue—it became his personal monologue,” Shamrikyan concluded.