Pashinyan Gives a New Reason not to Back Him in Next Parliamentary Elections — By Harut Sassounian

After eight years of inept leadership, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan continues to damage Armenia’s interests, after giving away Artsakh to Azerbaijan.

I will now present the latest example of Pashinyan’s illegal actions.

Armenians were surprised to learn that the Prime Minister had ordered the dismissal of the Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, Dr. Edita Gzoyan, just because she had given the visiting Vice President of the United States JD Vance books on genocide and mass violence.

Here is how Pashinyan on March 12 justified his illegal demand for Dr. Gzoyan’s resignation: “When the Prime Minister says there is no Karabagh movement, what does it mean to present a foreign guest a book about the Artsakh issue? In this country, how many people can conduct foreign policy? The foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia is conducted by the government of the Republic of Armenia. And any state official who says something contrary to the foreign policy of Armenia should be dismissed. There is no issue there. Are we a state or a self-made group where we are experimenting with our creative potential? This is a state, beloved ones, with its clear governmental logic and state system. And there is absolutely no reason to make any excuses. The government decides foreign policy and I am the leader of the government and I decide, yes. … Yes, I asked her [Dr. Gzoyan] to submit her resignation. Yes I considered it an action contrary to the government’s foreign policy. I viewed it as a provocative act and asked her to submit her resignation. This is a state security issue. I say it again, when we announce that we must cease the Karabagh movement, there cannot be an official who can continue the Karabagh movement. There cannot be!”

By forcing Dr. Gzoyan to resign, Pashinyan committed several illegal acts:

1)    He has no legal authority to decide who would be the director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. The museum is managed by a foundation. Only the 15 members of the foundation’s Board of Trustees have the right to appoint or dismiss the director. Thus, Pashinyan illegally usurped the authority of the Board Trustees. In protest, several distinguished members of the Board of Trustees resigned, including the chairman, Dr. Raymond Kevorkian, a French-Armenian historian and a preeminent genocide scholar; Prof. Stephan Astourian, Executive Director of the Armenian Studies Program and Adjunct Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley; Dr. Harutyun Marutyan, a leading researcher at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia; and Dr. Hranush Kharatyan, a leading scientific researcher at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

2)    Dr. Gzoyan did nothing wrong. As the Director of the Genocide Museum, she presented several books relevant to the Genocide museum’s mission to Vice President Vance. The Genocide Museum is an establishment that chronicles mass violence and genocide against Armenians in the past and the present.

3)    After dismissing Dr. Gzoyan, Pashinyan committed a second illegal act. Without any authority, he appointed his former aide, Hrachya Tashchian, as acting director of AGMI. This is the prerogative of the AGMI foundation’s Board of Trustees.

4)    Pashinyan sent the wrong message that academic research should be subordinated to politics. Anytime governmental policies change, scholars would be expected to amend their research to match the political leader’s whims! This is how Turkey and Azerbaijan distort the facts of the Armenian Genocide.

5)    Pashinyan, who complained about Dr. Gzoyan giving a book about Artsakh to Vice President Vance, presented a book on Artsakh to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in 2019 in Turkmenistan during the CIS summit. Shouldn’t he be dismissed for doing what Dr. Gzoyan did?

Trying to appease Erdogan and Aliyev, Pashinyan’s next order may be the shutdown of the Genocide Museum and Memorial.

Twenty five prominent Armenian scholars from around the world, including a Turkish scholar, signed a joint statement issued by the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), condemning Pashinyan’s “troubling” action. They praised Dr. Gzoyan’s exceptional academic credentials and called on the Armenian government “to respect the independence of AGMI and ensure that Dr. Gzoyan is allowed to continue her work without political pressure or intervention. Protecting the [Genocide Museum] Institute’s autonomy and leadership is critical for preserving its credibility, safeguarding its scholarly mission and maintaining the trust of the international academic community. We believe that directorship of the AGMI should be based on the qualities of the individual as a scholar and administrator and not the political expedience of any particular administration.” They firmly demanded that “Dr. Gzoyan be reinstated immediately and allowed to continue the outstanding work she has been leading.”

With each passing day, Pashinyan continues to drag Armenia downhill — a critical issue to consider when voting in the June 7 parliamentary elections.