‘Azerbaijani Party’ in Armenia competes with Pashinyan

Before our very eyes, an Azerbaijani party is being formed in Armenia. Let us recall that a group of representatives from Armenia’s “civil society” made a two-day visit to Azerbaijan in late November.

As part of the so-called “Bridge of Peace” initiative, representatives from Armenia—Areg Kochinyan, Boris Navasardyan, Naira Sultanyan, Narek Minasyan, and Samvel Meliksetyan—met with Azerbaijani colleagues Farhad Mammadov, Rusif Huseynov, Kamala Mammadova, Ramil Iskandarli, and Fuad Abdullayev, as well as with Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the President of Azerbaijan.

Upon returning from Azerbaijan, the “civil society” representatives not only held a press conference and presented the “results of the visit,” but also declared that anyone opposing Armenian‑Azerbaijani normalization is either a fool or a foreign intelligence agent.

Moreover, the “experts,” acting as a kind of relay for Hikmet Hajiyev, conveyed his message that supposedly for Azerbaijan the war is over. Yet record defense spending in Azerbaijan’s budget suggests otherwise: in 2026, defense and security expenditures are projected at 8.7 billion manats ($5.12 billion at current rates), a 3.8% increase compared to the approved 2025 budget.

Also reappearing on the public stage was Jirair Libaridian, a strong advocate of maximum integration with Turkey—integration that amounts to absorption. In an interview with Public Television, Libaridian tried to convince everyone that Turkey and Azerbaijan are practically Armenia’s friends, while Russia is certainly not. At the same time, Libaridian did not mention that Armenia is not occupied by Turkey only thanks to the “Russian security umbrella”—the CSTO, the 1997 Treaty of Friendship, and Russia’s 102nd military base, which continue to function.

Let us even set aside the fact that Azerbaijan has successfully lobbied for the publication of the book about Western Azerbaijan and the Zangezur Corridor by the respected British publisher Cambridge Scholar Publishing. Instead, let us emphasize that Nikol Pashinyan today repeats the mistake of the previous government, which believed that “all of Armenia’s civil society was in their pocket.” But 2018 showed that “these people serve only one center,” and it is not located on Baghramyan 26, nor today in the government’s main building.

It is politically shortsighted to assume that in a situation where all red lines are erased and authorities are destroyed, someone in the Armenian government can financially outbid the offers of Turkey and Azerbaijan. Before our eyes, an Azerbaijani party is being formed in Armenia, already having direct contacts with Baku, thereby depriving Pashinyan of such a monopoly.

Think about it…