Forecast: By 2023, Pashinyan will have serious problems with holding power

ARMINFO
Armenia – June 23 2022



David Stepanyan

ArmInfo.The essence of the recent statements of  Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan on the settlement of the Artsakh conflict leads to the attempt to justify  his own current policy by sharing the responsibility with Levon  Ter-Petrosyan, Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan. A similar opinion  was expressed to ArmInfo by head of the Armenian Constructive Party,  political scientist Andrias Ghukasyan.

"Thus, he is trying to demonstrate that no matter who was in his  place today, the result would be the same. I personally assess such  argumentation as primitive. The fact is that Pashinyan personally  feels that he has lost in the struggle for the self-determination of  Artsakh. At the same time, many of his statements from the rostrum of  the Parliament really correspond to political realities, with the  exception, perhaps, of his conclusions on the principles of Madrid,"  he noted.

Assessing the Madrid principles as, in fact, a program for the  secession of Artsakh from Azerbaijan, the political scientist  stressed that it was Nikol Pashinyan who rejected this program. And  today he is trying not only to completely shift the blame for the  defeat on the former authorities, but also to argue that the  principles did not correspond to the interests of Armenia and  Artsakh, and that is why he rejected them in 2019.

At the same time, according to Ghukasyan, having rejected the  principles-brainchild of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Pashinyan,  as the new leader of Armenia, did not put forward any concept of a  settlement of his own. And without putting forward an alternative,  without taking a single step towards the formation of an agenda for  the international recognition of the Republic of Artsakh, today he is  only reading morals from the rostrum of the parliament.

"As for the peace agenda that Pashinyan is trying to lead the country  towards, then, arguing about the need to consolidate society around  this agenda, Pashinyan means only consolidation around himself. There  is nothing new here. By 2023, Pashinyan will have serious problems  with holding power connected solely with external factors and  reasons, including the fact that the failure of the Russian  Federation in a number of areas will inevitably affect its satellite  Armenia. In this light, society remains his only chance to stay in  power. Thus, he hopes to prove to the international community that  he, let's say, is not a good person, but the people are consolidated  around him. Accordingly, he can continue to fulfill their wishes  now," Ghukasyan summed up.