“Using the Karabakh issue to come to power in 1998, the Sarkisian-Kocharian duo lost the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiating process and squandered our victory in the first Artsakh war over the next 20 years,” he charged.
Speaking in the Armenian parliament, Pashinian accused the two ex-presidents of illegally enriching themselves and turning Armenia into a “mafia structure” during their rule. He said they have no moral right to brand him a “capitulator” and “traitor.”
“While Azerbaijan bought spy satellites the [former] Armenian authorities bought plots of lands on Greek islands, in Europe and everywhere where that was possible,” he said in a speech which lawmakers from his My Step bloc greeted with a standing ovation.
The session was boycotted by the main opposition Prosperous Armenia Party’s parliamentary group but attended by other opposition deputies. Some of them accused Pashinian of seeking to dodge responsibility for the outcome of the war which left at least 3,500 Armenia soldiers dead and led to sweeping Azerbaijani territorial gains.
They also condemned their pro-government colleagues’ rapturous applause as inappropriate.
“They are creating new standards for morality, which is called My Step’s morality,” said Taron Simonian of the opposition Bright Armenia Party. “As if these heavy losses and misfortunes … were not enough, they are underlining their political leader’s extreme ineptness.”
Armenia -- Gor Gevorgian, a parliament deputy formerly affiliated with the ruling My Step bloc, speaks during a session of the National Assembly, Yerevan, April 13, 2021.
Gor Gevorgian, a presently independent lawmaker who left My Step right after the war, told Pashinian on the parliament floor: “As a member of a post-war country’s parliament, I am ashamed of this hand clapping because we have thousands of casualties, captured compatriots and fresh graves. You should have tried to rein in your teammates.”
“Who are you?” Pashinian shot back. “Where have you come from? I won’t bother to answer your question.”
“We applaud people who believe in the future of Armenia and Artsakh,” he added.
Representatives of Sarkisian and Kocharian issued, meanwhile, strongly-worded rebuttals of Pashinian’s accusations.
Eduard Sharmazanov, the spokesman for Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), said the war and its outcome were the result of Pashinian’s “foolish, nonsensical and spontaneous” policy on the Karabakh conflict.
“The wartime commander-in-chief who is responsible for 5,000 [Armenian combat] casualties and during whose rule we lost more than 10,000 square kilometers of land … blames everyone except himself,” Sharmazanov told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Sharmazanov said Pashinian mishandled not only the war but also negotiations with Azerbaijan mediated by the United States, Russia and France.
In that regard, he dismissed Pashinian’s fresh claims that peace proposals made by the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group during Sarkisian’s rule were not favorable for the Armenian side. He argued that earlier this year the group’s Russian co-chair, Igor Popov, accused Pashinian of misrepresenting those proposals.
A spokesman for Kocharian, Bagrat Mikoyan, scoffed at Pashinian’s “panicky” remarks, saying that they are further proof that the prime minister is “losing power.”
Sarkisian and Kocharian had led Karabakh during its successful 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. Like virtually all Armenian opposition groups, the ex-presidents have held Pashinian responsible for the Armenian side’s defeat in the 2020 war and demanded his resignation.
Armenia -- Riot police block a sreet adjacent to the parliament building in Yerevan during Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian's speech in the National Assembly, April 14, 2021.
Sarkisian’s HHK is a key member of an opposition alliance that launched anti-government street protests in Yerevan immediately after the hostilities were halted by a Russian-brokered agreement on November 10. Pashinian has pledged to hold snap general elections in response to the protests.
In his latest speech, Pashinian also strongly denied allegations that he is the one who ordered in early October an Armenian military counteroffensive in Karabakh that proved disastrous and greatly facilitated Azerbaijan’s subsequent victory.
The embattled premier further dismissed the former Armenian army chief Onik Gasparian’s claims that three days after the outbreak of the 2020 hostilities he warned Pashinian that Armenia and Karabakh are heading for defeat and that the war must be stopped as soon as possible. He insisted that Gasparian made a statement to the contrary at a September 30 meeting of his Security Council.
Gasparian stood by his claims and accused the prime minister of “shamelessly distorting facts” in comments to Armlur.am made later on Wednesday.
The general was controversially sacked as chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff after initiating a February 25 statement by the army top brass that accused Pashinian of misrule and demanded his resignation.