Opposition leaders shrugged off the claim made in the Armenian parliament amid the lingering risk of another war with Azerbaijan.
“Two years ago, I announced from this podium that if we manage to maintain our statehood for a year or two, it will mean that we have created and are creating a real opportunity to have a state in the coming century,” said Pashinian. “And now, two years later, I … must state that in the medium term, our strategic objective for the century has been achieved. But we must not let our guard down for a second.”
He said that the key to Armenia’s survival is to focus on the economic development of its internationally recognized territory and create a new “security system” of which a strong army will not be the main component.
“Armenia must act only and only in accordance with the interests of its own economic development,” he said during a parliament debate on his government’s draft state budget for next year.
Pashinian spoke four years after Armenia’s defeat in a six-week war with Azerbaijan and more than one year after another Azerbaijani offensive that restored Baku’s full control over Nagorno-Karabakh. Opposition leaders again blamed him for the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh which they say only aggravated security threats to Armenia.
Armenia - Oppositon deputy Gegham Manukian speaks during a session of the parliament, October 17, 2024.
Gegham Manukian, a lawmaker representing the opposition Hayastan alliance, said Pashinian keeps making excuses for having “botched and ruined everything” since coming to power in 2018.
“The guy, thinking that he is a messiah, blurts out some nonsense every day,” Manukian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Another opposition deputy, Tigran Abrahamian, dismissed Pashinian’s criticism of the “army nation” formula which was advanced by former President Serzh Sarkisian with the stated aim of offsetting Azerbaijan’s military buildup. Abrahamian, whose Pativ Unem bloc is led by Sarkisian, charged that Pashinian’s policies led to the 2020 war and “laid the foundation” for the subsequent Azerbaijani takeover of Karabakh.
Pashinian publicly recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh several months before the September 2023 offensive that forced the region’s entire population to flee to Armenia. The premier, who had declared in 2019 that “Artsakh is Armenia,” implied on Tuesday that Armenian control of Karabakh was a bad idea. He went on to claim that his administration has “guaranteed the existence of Armenian statehood for the next century.”
Armenian officials, notably Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, have said in recent months that Azerbaijan may be planning to invade Armenia after hosting the COP29 climate summit in Baku on November 11-22. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly threatened such military action.