Beniamin Matevosyan: Western Azerbaijan 2.0

(Aliyev moved to destroy Artsakh’s churches after Pashinyan’s speech at the European Parliament)

We are witnessing the implementation of a consistent, deeply calculated strategy for the complete dismantling of Armenian statehood and identity. At the center of this strategy lies the concept of the so-called “Western Azerbaijan” — a project that has ceased to be a marginal pseudo-historical theory and has become a direct genocidal driver.

The “Western Azerbaijan” narrative is not a question of toponymy. It is an instrument of total revanchism. By declaring the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia “historical lands of Azerbaijan,” Ilham Aliyev’s regime creates a base, legitimate in the eyes of its own society, for the next phase of aggression.

We must call things by their proper names: the current policy of Baku, carried out with the direct military and ideological support of Ankara, is a direct continuation of the genocidal policies of 1915. For the Turkish and Azerbaijani leadership, the destruction of Artsakh and the pressure on Armenia is not “restoration of territorial integrity” but, in their own conviction, “the completion of the ancestors’ work.” The history of recent years teaches us that every political concession made by Yerevan results in humanitarian catastrophe.

October 6, 2022: in Prague, Nikol Pashinyan officially recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan. The signal was received immediately. Just two months later, a total blockade began, turning into nine months of organized starvation, followed by full-scale aggression and ethnic cleansing, as a result of which Armenian Artsakh ceased to exist.

March 11, 2026: an even more fateful statement was made from the podium of the European Parliament. Official Yerevan effectively closed the question of the return of the people of Artsakh to their historic homeland.
What followed this “signal”? We see it today. Aliyev’s regime, sensing final impunity and the absence of political will on Armenia’s part, moved into the phase of cultural genocide.

Today in Stepanakert and throughout Artsakh, what is happening can only be described as “leveling history to the ground.” The destruction of Armenian churches, beginning with the cathedral of the capital, is an attempt to kill not only the living, but also the memory of those who lived there for centuries.

The concept of the so-called “Western Azerbaijan” is not the end of the road. It is merely preparation for a new advance. If today the international community, and above all we ourselves, do not recognize that behind the destroyed churches of Stepanakert lies a plan for the destruction of Syunik, Gegharkunik, and Yerevan, then the tragedy of 1915 will repeat itself on an even more terrible scale.

Peace at the price of identity is not peace, it is capitulation before genocide. Our task today is to expose this false narrative and stop the machine of destruction before it crosses the last borders of our homeland.

Think about this…