Vadim Arutyunov: Pashinyan repeats Turkish narratives

Speaking with Alpha News, Armenian journalist, blogger, traveler and orientalist Vadim Arutyunov commented on the anti-Armenian statements of the current authorities and emphasized that they repeat Turkish narratives word for word.

“When these people came to power in Armenia, I did not support them from the very beginning, because I never had confidence in them. I was initially against them. When they say that the current Foreign Minister has the highest IQ in the government, I can only imagine what the others have,” Arutyunov noted.

According to Arutyunov, the current Armenian authorities are repeating what the Turkish authorities have been instilling in their country for decades.

“Pashinyan completely retells what has been talked about in Turkey all these years. In 2016, I came to Turkey to do a short piece on the life of Istanbul Armenians. I rented a small apartment in the center of Istanbul, and I wanted to chat with old Turks and find out what they are like. I met some people, but they didn’t know that I was Armenian because I introduced myself as Russian. I told them that on April 24 in Russia, all Armenians remember the tragic events and the Genocide.

They hung their heads, but one got the courage and said that he never got to meet those Armenians, although their descendants still live here. He said we don’t need to believe all the talk of Armenians and Russians about genocide; there was no genocide. There was the First World War, and Armenians trusted Russians too much, and it turned out that they found themselves between Russians and Turks. As proof that Turks have always treated Armenians well, he brought an album about the Armenian architects of Istanbul in Turkish, published in 2011.

Then he said that all questions should be addressed to Russians rather than Turks. The Turk added that there was no historical Armenia, and Kurds have always lived there along with Armenians. Now I hear all this from Pashinyan, word for word! All these tales that I hear cause bewilderment—all his Turkish narratives that Armenia is not Armenia, that the coat of arms should be changed, that there was no Genocide, that Russians are to blame for everything, and so on,” Arutyunov said.