His statement came on the 33rd anniversary of a referendum in which the vast majority of Armenians voted for their republic’s secession from the crumbling Soviet Union. The Armenian government again opted for a low-key celebration of the public holiday. It only held an awards ceremony in the presidential palace in Yerevan on the occasion.
“I apologize for all the obvious and possible mistakes that we have made and, speaking between us, will continue to make because man is fallible,” Pashinian said in his statement.
He did not specify his mistakes. He claimed instead that “the level of our country’s independence is increasing day by day due to democracy, balancing and balanced foreign policy.”
Armenia - People visit the Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan, September 21, 2024.
Pashinian’s critics shrugged off the claim, saying that he has left Armenia fighting for its territorial integrity and very survival during his more than six-year rule. They blame him for Armenia’s defeat in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan and last year’s Azerbaijani takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh, saying those event dramatically increased security threats to the country.
“Independence is spoken by a person who has deprived us of Artsakh and also created conditions in which they are forcing us to have very weak independence, very weak sovereignty,” said Seyran Ohanian, the parliamentary leader of the main opposition Hayastan alliance.
Ohanian spoke to journalists at Yerevan’s Yerablur Military Pantheon where many of the Armenian soldiers killed in action were laid to rest. Armenian leaders had for decades laid flowers there on Independence Day.
Pashinian and members of his government and political team again did not visit the military cemetery on Saturday. They were clearly anxious to avoid being confronted by angry parents of fallen soldiers holding them responsible for the deaths of their sons. For a third consecutive year, dozens of such parents gathered at Yerablur on Friday evening and stayed there until the next afternoon in a bid to prevent Pashinian’s possible presence there.
Armenia - Police detain protesting parents of fallen soldiers at the Yerablur Military Pantheon, Yerevan, September 21, 2022.
Pashinian also posted on social media a short video purportedly describing Armenia’s path to independence. It made no mention of the 1988 popular movement for Armenia’s unification with Karabakh which generated the then Soviet republic’s subsequent independence drive.
Pashinian publicly recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh several months before Azerbaijan launched on September 19, 2023 a military offensive that forced the region’s ethnic Armenian population to flee its homeland.
Economy Minister Gevorg Papoyan, who is also the deputy chairman of Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, declared recently that Armenia saved itself by not trying to stop the Azerbaijani assault and the resulting fall of Karabakh. September 19 is therefore Armenia’s “real independence day,” he said.