‘Karabakh Movement Must Not Continue,’ Pashinyan Angrily Asserts

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday, several times, asserted in parliament that the Karabakh Movement for the self-determination of the people of Artsakh must not continue, driving a further wedge between his ruling party and the opposition.

During a heated question and answer session in parliament on Wednesday, Pashinyan justified his statement by saying that the best path toward peace was the policy advanced by him and the ruling party.

The prime minister explained that his government’s path to peace is why Yerevan has agreed to concede to Azerbaijan’s demand, and precondition to signing the peace treaty, to dismantle the OSCE Minsk Group, tasked to find a settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Pashinyan provided no timeline for this.

“I want to say clearly and unequivocally: I think that we should not continue the Karabakh movement,” Pashinyan asserted.

“Why are we postponing the decision on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship? Because we are saying that we want to be sure that just as we have a political decision that we are not continuing the Karabakh movement, there would not be a political decision in Azerbaijan that they are going to start another movement, let’s say, for example, the ‘Western Azerbaijan’ movement,” Pashinyan claimed, adding that he does not want the conflict to now emanate from Azerbaijan.

The remarks about ending the Karabakh movement angered opposition lawmakers, who accused Pashinyan of kowtowing to Azerbaijan’s whims, demands and preconditions.

Pashinyan also went into an angry unhinged diatribe against his predecessors, the three former presidents of Armenia—Levon Ter-Petrossian, Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian—whom he accused of continuing to criticize him blame him for the losses in Artsakh.

He said that the three former leaders refused his offer to debate him about the government policies on the Karabakh conflict during the past 30 years.

Pashinyan then threatened to “throw [them] against the wall” and “trample [them] underfoot” if the ex-presidents did not stop blaming him for the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“If there is nothing to debate, sit down and shut up,” Pashinyan said on the parliament floor. “If you are ready to debate, let’s talk. I say I will not debate with you, I will throw you against the wall and the remains of your political corpses will be taken out from there. It concerns all three of you. Stop playing with my nerves. I will trample you underfoot, not debate with you.”

“Either you hunker down, shut up and don’t talk about that topic, or we go to a live debate,” the prime minister warned. “There is no other option.”