The Sad Chronology of Pashinyan 2018-2025

· January 5, 2026

By Shahan Kalfayan,

Keghart

While Nikol Pashinyan’s meteoric accession to power was welcomed by most diaspora Armenians, since 2020 his reputation has sharply declined and in some quarters the adoration has deteriorated to naked hatred. He has been tagged ignorant, inexperienced, immature, a political lightweight, short-fused, corrupt, dictatorial, criminal, and a self-hating traitor who will destroy Armenia if not removed ASAP. The below article is a litany of Pashinyan’s blunders and crimes since 2018.

To give admirers of Pashinyan equal time, we invite pro-Pashinyan writers/journalists/scholars/public figures…to submit to Keghart an article of equal length to justify Pashinyan’s policies. Send the article to dikrankeghart@gmail.com Editor.

Pre-war

1) April 2018: When his revolution was in full swing, he declared on the microphone at the Hrabarag: “If Nigol does not become Prime Minister of Armenia, there will be no Prime Minister of Armenia.”
2) 2019-2020: At public rallies, he repeatedly stated: “I will never ever sign anything without bringing it up with you, the people.”
3) 2019: He asked the people to block the entrances and the exits of the courts. An undemocratic call.
4) 2019: He closed the Ministry of Diaspora.
5) 2019: He closed the Ministry of Agriculture (14% of GDP).
6) 2019: He fired Gen. Hachaturov from the key position of secretary to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). Armenia lost that critical position for good. It also lost extremely valuable military intelligence.
7) He replaced all the key top positions, including the National Security Agency, with very young and inexperienced people (and changed them often). He thus burned bridges and confidence levels with the corresponding agency heads of friendly countries.
8) 2020 April: He purchased four Sukhoi fighter jets with no ammunition/missiles.
9) 2020 : He ignored the “Lavrov Plan” which proposed the return of the five territories around Artsakh Republic, while keeping Karvajar and Lachin districts until the status of Artsakh was finalized. (Had he accepted that plan, the 10-month blockade of Artsakh geographically could not have happened.)
10) 2020 September: Although he had information about the war preparations of Azerbaijan/Turkey, he ignored the info and even let Defence Minister Donoyan leave the country on vacation on Sept. 26, just a day before the start of the war.

During the war: Sept 27 – Nov 9, 2020.

1) Sept 27, 2020: The first day of the war, he told Parliament: “If we lose this war, we will lose it with honor.”
2) On the third day of the war, Chief of Staff General Onig Kasbaryan told him: “Armenia cannot win this war”…which he ignored it, knowing they were dealing not only with the Azeris.
3) On Oct. 10, Russia offered to stop the war provided Russian peacekeepers would take over the Artsakh borders. He refused.
4) On Oct 19, Putin had brokered a deal whereby Artsakh was going to keep Karvajar and Lachin and return the other surrounding regions (The repeat of the Lavrov Plan). He refused. (Shushi was still under Artsakh’s control).
5) His wife, without authority, was in the command headquarter’s bunker interfering in the decisions of the top generals. When general Movses Hagopyan asked her to leave, she made sure the general was fired.
6) He called the front lines on live Internet, supposedly to motivate the soldiers while sheepishly asking “At this unit/point, how many of you are there?”
7) He continuously called President Macron of France instead of solving the issue with Moscow.
8) On Nov. 9, 2020 he signed the capitulation agreement (without reviewing the text with then Foreign Minister Mnatsaganyan or then President Armen Sarkissyan). He did not resign.
9) The capitulation text had many basic deficiencies. For example, there was no deadline for the return of all POWs. The deadline to vacate the surrounding regions were unrealistic and short. Thus, it did not give time to the villagers to take care of their fields, herds, and also save their other belongings.

Post-war, Nov 9, 2020

1) When the exchange of POWs took place, he returned all Azeri prisoners without receiving all the Armenian prisoners.
2) 2021: When Azeri forces cut into Armenia proper, he said: “We are not going to start a war just because their forces moved to our side of the lake.” Pointing to a mountainside, he said: “That mountain is covered with snow half the year. Are we supposed to defend that mountain, too?”
3) 2021 March: In his speech at Hrabarag, addressing the public, he said:“ The reason we have made some mistakes is because you love us so much. We are working very hard to earn that love, so sometimes we are also making some mistakes, because you love us so much”. This statement is one of the many examples where he tries to manipulate the people with convoluted and confusing statements.
4) 2021: In Prague, he agreed that Artsakh was part of Azerbaijan, without securing anything about the security of the people living there.
5) 2022: During a press conference in Germany when Chancellor Sholz was talking about Artsakh’s “self-determination,” Pashinyan was talking about Azerbaijan’s borders with territorial integrity…leaving Artsakh without security plans.
6) 2023: Armenia signed the Rome Statute without getting anything in return, Causing anger in Moscow.
7) 2023: He told Parliament he had “accepted the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan which includes Artsakh” and “Stepanakert has to negotiate with Baku directly for their security.”
8) Throughout his tenure, instead of working behind the scenes, he has been giving public interviews to foreign and local reporters and criticizing other countries.
9) He appointed his English tutor, Ms. Magunts, ambassador to the U.S. by giving her the highest diplomatic title. She had no diplomatic experience.
10) To negotiate a “normalization” process with Turkey, he appointed a 30-year-old as negotiator for Armenia. This person had NO diplomatic credentials and no experience in international negotiations. He faced a seasoned Turkish diplomat who was ambassador to the United States for over 20 years.
11) Throughout his tenure, there has been an obvious push to abandon Armenian national values and history. A “strange” agenda which coincides with our neighbors’ agenda. Examples: Calling Western Armenia “Anatolia” in history text books. Calling the Genocide “the unfortunate events of 1915”. Changing the core title of our history books from “Hayots Badmutyun” to “Hayasdani Badmutyun”, questioning the validity of Armenia’s coat-of-arms. ”Why are there lions on the Coat of Arms? There are no lions in Armenia and “Why are we talking about Mount Ararat all the time? It is not in Armenia. Arakadz is in Armenia.”
12) Instead of re-building and motivating the army, he and his team have been ruining the relationships with Armenia’s closest ally, which were developed over decades. Since the 44-day war he has not organized any war-games-exercises.
13) When Azeris started the last and decisive attack on the remaining lands of Artsakh (when the population came face to face with a possible annihilation) he declared: “Right now, there is no threat to the lives of the Artsakh people.” This statement was used by the Azeri foreign minister during a UN Security Council meeting against FM Mirzoyan’s claims that a genocide was imminent. The FMs of France and Germany repeated that the lives of Artsakhtsis were in danger.
14) He blocked several Diaspora Armenians from visiting Armenia.
15) 2023 November: When the country, especially the army, needed urgent defence equipment, he decided to buy an embassy building in London for 17 million British pounds ($22 million USD). The building is on Pall Mall next to the Trafalgar Square, one of the most expensive locations in London.
16) 2024 February: AGAIN, when the country, especially the army, needed urgent arms, he decided to buy another embassy building…this one in Paris (a palace estate used by former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing) for 23 million Euros ($25 million USD).
17) Instead of modifying some of the items of the constitution which needed to improve, he wants to re-write it so that Armenia would have no demands from any of its neighbors, burying the Artsakh’s self-determination for good.
18) While the Azeris bring up new demands, he talks about a “Peace Document,” without getting anything in return. He again offered a map of the land mines without getting anything in return.
19) He gave up the control of four villages without getting anything in return, not even the Armenian political prisoners in Baku. Before giving land to the enemy, he also ordered to de-mine the territory, endangering the lives of our de-mining soldiers.
20) He threatened the villagers at Tavush by stating: “If you do not get out of your village there will be a war”. Which PM or president threatens his people with war?
21) On the 109th Anniversary of the Genocide he gave a watered down commemorative speech. One of his closest deputies repeated the Turkish position saying “We should come up with a list of the names and locations of all the Genocide victims, in order to find out the real number…”. (Even non-Armenian genocide research organizations such as the Lemkin Institute, Henry Theriault, President of Genocide Scholars reacted negatively to this.)
22) 2024 May: He ordered police to block the entrance of the Catholicos to Sardarabad..
23) 2024 June: He conceded it his biggest failure was not giving Artsakh to Azerbaijan when he first came to power: “Yes, I admitted yesterday that it was my greatest mistake and my greatest failure that I did not do it in 2018.” This is the same man who proclaimed while visiting Artsakh in 2019: “Artsakh is Armenia. Period.” He then turned around in 2023 and said the exact opposite: “Artsakh is part of Azerbaijan.” No wonder, Pashinyan’s critics think that something is wrong with him.
24) 2024 Nov 14 «Հայաստանի Անկախության հռչակագրի բովանդակությունն այն մասին է, որ Հայաստանի Հանրապետությունը չի կարող գոյություն ունենալ»,
25) 2024 Nov: When asked about the political prisoners in Baku, instead of saying he was working on their release, he simply said: “I did not understand why Rouben Vardanyan went to Artsakh.” This caused further accusations in Baku against Vardanian.
26) 2025 Jan 27: In Switzerland he made comments posing a question on the Genocide again. He said similar things as the perpetrators of the Genocide.
27) 2025 Jun/July: As if the country had no other problems, he and his unofficial wife attacked the Catholicos in public. With his instructions, he got two bishops and big benefactor Samvel Karapetyan arrested on trumped up charges.
28) 2025 August 8: Went to Washington without a list of items to negotiate, whereas Azerbaijan went with an agenda and they got concessions.
29) 2025 August 28: “I AM the government, whoever has different ideas about my decisions should resign.”
30) 2025 August: On the anniversary of the 1990 independence declaration. In his official speech he said (and wrote): “We have to prepare for defeat as we cannot expect victories all the time….”
31) 2025 August: He told Armenian journalists on August 27 that Netanyahu’s statement (about Israel’s parliament’s recognition of the Genocied) had nothing to do with Armenia or the interests of the Armenian people. He also questioned whether Armenians have gained anything from genocide recognition by dozens of countries. He even revealed that he had asked foreign leaders why they had recognized the Armenian Genocide. Pashinyan is thus actively undermining the pursuit of justice for the Armenian Cause. This is what happens when a politically inexperienced and unpatriotic man ascends to the seat of power.
32) 2025 October – When the Eastern Syunik borders at Chermuk were occupied by the Azeri forces, when we have numerous prisoners at Baku jails going through mock trials, when Aliyev is repeating his demands of the “return” of 300,000 Azeris to Armenia (and many of his deputies calling Armenia “Western Azerbaijan”), Pashinyan is busy attacking the Catholicos, under the disguise of “Cleaning the Echmiadzin.” Is this a priority? He has de facto split the Church by siding with one of the allegedly most corrupt archbishops in Armenia.
33) While he put the Armenian Apostolic Church in turmoil, the Western cults are having a field day in Armenia.
34) 2025 October: Under the disguise of civil society rapprochement, he let an Azeri delegation of six to visit Yerevan and have high-level meetings with Armenia’s National Security Secretary. One of the members of the Azeri delegation was no other than the key “environmentalist” who back in 2022 had initiated the 11-month blockade of Artsakh, therefore totally ignoring the sensitivities of the displaced people of Artsakh who had lost everything since September 2023. This so called “environmentalist” gave interviews on Azeri TV with backgrounds of Ararat and the Azeri flag waving at the Yerevan’s Hrabarag.
35) 2025 November: The debt of Armenia has doubled to $15 billion USD, in seven years. Is this not a priority?
36) 2025 November: He selectively released Artsakh negotiations documents with the Minsk Group (including confidential ones) to get points in preparation for the June 2026 elections.
37) 2025 December: He has started talks with the Azeris to bring in oil through Azerbaijan. Do we want Armenia to be dependent on Azerbaijan under the disguise of “peace”? Did we not learn from the blockade of Artsakh before the final attack in 2022-2023?
38) 2025 December: As we know, Aliyev and his deputies are constantly referring to Armenia as “Western Azerbaijan.” Pashinyan just said the following: “If you stop calling Armenia ‘Western Azerbaijan’ we will also never talk about Karbaghtsis ‘Right of Return’”. This is a travesty. Armenia was never ‘Azeri’ yet Karabagh was Armenian for thousands of years.
39) 2025 December: During his visit to Berlin, Pashinyan denigrated the Armenian Church and the Catholicos in the presence of the German Council on Foreign Relations. Also claimed the Catholicos is a foreign agent.