Sasun Mikaelyan unveiled the concept of Armenia’s endless concessions

There are several characters in the Pashinyan power group who periodically throw basic ideas fundamental to Nikol Pashinyan into the public discourse. Among such characters are Hovik Aghazaryan, Gagik Melkonyan, and, of course, Sasun Mikaelyan.

Sasun Mikaelyan certainly has a special place in this hierarchy, and therefore his ideas should be analyzed separately. It was Mikaelyan who, during the 2018 election campaign, stated that the “victory of the people in the revolution” was more important than the Artsakh Liberation War and, accordingly, more important than the victory in the First Karabakh War.

And the 2020 war proved that Mikaelyan demonstrated a deep vision of the situation for the Civil Contract Party and Pashinyan personally. They chose to lose the war, to cause thousands of casualties, thousands of square kilometers of lost territories, a destroyed security system, ruined lives, destinies, and dreams, but did not leave power.

Although during the war there were politicians who openly, despite all the censorship and threats of repression, offered Pashinyan to leave, putting power in the hands of the Defense Committee, headed by the army. But since the “revolution” of 2018 was more important than Artsakh, and indeed the “revolution” was needed to surrender Artsakh, Nikol Pashinyan preferred to keep his seat.

Already in 2024, the same Sasun Mikaelyan says that “Armenia today does not have capabilities to successfully resist Azerbaijan, which is why it is necessary to delimit border.” In other words, Mikaelyan says that to preserve power, any concessions should be made to Azerbaijan. However, there are several important “buts” in this situation.

Firstly, is anyone sure that the authorities will justify only “delimitation” with Mikaelyan’s argument, according to “Ilham Aliyev’s wishlist”? A similar “argument” can be “justified” for the surrender of the “corridor”, Goris, Meghri, and, for example, the surrender of the Vazgen Sargsyan house museum in his native village. The Vazgen Sargsyan, whose work is systematically destroyed by his brother, and the same Sasun Mikaelyan, who is doing this today, heading the organization created by Vazgen, the Yerkrapah Volunteer Union.

Secondly, let’s imagine that Sasun Mikaelyan is right and Armenia is not able to effectively confront Baku; in other words, it is not able to restore the strategic balance of power in the region. Logic and common sense (as well as historical experience) say that in that case, Armenia should at least try to involve a mediator in the talks who will be able to balance the forces of the parties, as well as monitor the implementation of the agreements taken by the parties (and not sabotaged, primarily by Yerevan itself). Both Sasun Mikaelyan, Hovik Aghazaryan, Gagik Melkonyan, and Nikol Pashinyan know that only Russia can be such a mediator in our region, due to a number of factors (not the least of which is Russia’s ability to establish military logistics in the region).

However, since Russia’s mediation directly contradicts the interests of the Civil Contract as well as, apparently, the behind-the-scenes obligations of the Armenian authorities, the authorities chose the option “surrender everything”. And Sasun Mikaelyan only voiced it.

Think about it…