For 30 years, we had built a model of the state primarily dedicated to resolution of Karabakh issue, says Pashinyan

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, speaking in parliament on April 17, touched upon the ideological grounds of the independent statehood, analyzing the goal around which the independence process of Armenia had been formed in the late 1980s.

He said that in the late 1980s, the idea of Armenia’s independence was actually generated not for independence but for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

“That is, we had created an independent state not for a better life, but for the Karabakh issue. This is the political reality which is confirmed by analysis. In 1989, the idea of independence prevailed as a result of the Karabakh Committee having lost the hope to resolve the Karabakh issue within the framework of the USSR order, and as one of the leaders of the Karabakh Committee had said, ‘independence is required for the resolution of the Karabakh issue’. Certainly, the agenda of establishing statehood always existed after the declaration and gaining of independence, but for nearly thirty years we had built a model of the state which was mostly, or primarily dedicated to the resolution of the Karabakh issue, the Karabakh Movement, and the logic of sacrificing everything for it,” Pashinyan said, emphasizing that he is making these remarks not as criticism, but as the reality, because everyone or at least the majority had approved that model or goal.

Pashinyan said he had also been at peace with that model up until the moment when, already as Prime Minister, parallel to gaining access to the facts and information, he substantially understood that if, for Armenia the independence and statehood were a measure for the kind of resolution of the Karabakh issue that the Armenian side had pursued, then for several foreign actors the Karabakh issue was a measure to not allow Armenia’s independence, statehood, development and prosperity, and eventually end Armenia’s statehood.

Pashinyan said the implementation of that ultimate goal was already in progress in 2018 and entered the final phase in 2020, reaching the culmination in May of 2021. “That goal has abettors also in Armenia, and these abettors believe that what matters is the Karabakh issue and not the independence and statehood [of Armenia],” Pashinyan said.