Pashinian claimed that Azerbaijani leaders continue to refer to much of Armenian territory as “Western Azerbaijan” in response to efforts to champion the rights of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population displaced during Baku’s recapture of the region in September 2023.
Earlier this week, the Azerbaijani government organized near the Armenian border a “festival-conference” on Azerbaijanis’ “return to Western Azerbaijan.” Addressing the event, Azerbaijani Education Minister Emin Amrulayev said the issue is of “strategic importance” to Baku.
An Azerbaijani lawmaker heading a government-linked group called the Community of Western Azerbaijan said afterwards that it must be on the agenda of Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations. Another Azerbaijani group reportedly organized on Wednesday an international conference on the subject on Capital Hill in Washington.
The Armenian government has pointedly declined to react to those developments. Armenian opposition leaders have seized upon them, saying that they were right to warn voters ahead of the June 7 parliamentary elections that Pashinian will allow as many as 300,000 Azerbaijanis to settle in Armenia if he wins reelection. The Armenian premier hit back at those claims.
“There is silence about the fact that just ten or a little more days ago, Armenian organizations [in the United States] brought up an issue that essentially concerns … the continuation of the Karabakh movement,” he told reporters.
Pashinian appeared to refer to the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), a lobbying group linked to the pan-Armenian Dashnaktsutyun party, which is in opposition to him. The ANCA reported last week that five pro-Armenian U.S. congressmen have put forward legislation demanding that Baku allow the Karabakh Armenians’ safe return to their homeland, release Armenian prisoners and withdraw from Armenian border areas seized by Azerbaijani forces in 2021 and 2022.
“These amendments send a clear message: Congress will not subsidize Azerbaijan’s abuses, aggression, desecration, and occupation with U.S. tax dollars,” said aid ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
“I’m saying it very bluntly: as long as the Dashnaktsutyun lobbying and steps in that direction continue in the United States, they will receive [a pushback from Baku] … Now any attempt to continue the Karabakh movement at other levels will bring mirror reactions,” said Pashinian.
“Moreover, that process can cause us problems,” he added without elaborating.
Pashinian also linked the Azerbaijani demands to the Armenian opposition’s advocacy of the Karabakh Armenians’ right to repatriation. He has repeatedly said that the more than 100,000 refugees should stop hoping to return to Karabakh and should “settle down” in Armenia instead.
Opposition leaders argue that “Western Azerbaijan” never existed as an entity, whereas Karabakh was for decades at the center of peace talks mediated by the United States, Russia and France. They have for years said that Pashinian’s unilateral concessions only encourage Baku to make more demands on Yerevan.
