Vaհe H. Apelian
This will be my third blog in this month about my take on the Armenian-Azeri peace treaty. I pen this blog because today I read the following comment by Ivan Ardhaldjian about Armenia’s yet unsigned peace treaty with Azerbaijan. Ivan lives in Armenia.
Ivan’s comment reads as follows: “The optical illusion of the peace treaty will continue as long as we are ready to unilaterally withdraw, justify the enemy and, what is terrible, gradually break the will of the Armenians, thinking that we are achieving peace. Having accepted the last two points of the negotiated peace treaty by the Armenian authorities, the National Assembly proposed to the Assembly to begin consultations on the signing of the agreed draft. Azerbaijan adds - Armenia must accept its responsibility for the 1991-2023 "aggression" against Azerbaijan and hand over all "criminals" to Azerbaijan. - Armenia must change its constitution. - Armenia must agree to officially dissolve the OSCE Minsk Group. - Armenia must provide a corridor between Nakhichevan and Azerbaijan. - "the right of return of West Azerbaijanis to their homeland, present-day Armenia."
Whatever Aliyev is saying after Armenia announced on May 13, 2025, that it is ready to sign the treaty, have nothing to do with the 17-point text of the peace treaty Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated. We surely know in our guts and know it all too well why Aliyev is piling add-ons. Quoting from my March 17, 2025 blog, Aliyev “will do his upmost to sink the deal.” (read link 1 below).
The question we should ask ourselves is not why is Aliyev bringing forth such add-ons. The question we should ask ourselves is, why would Aliyev not come forth with such add-ons? He knows that the Armenians are divided over the matter and are not solidly behind the signing of the treaty. Instead of standing behind their government who led the negotiations, the opposition in Armenia is echoing Azerbaijan’s stand, that this peace treaty the government of Armenia negotiated, is not good enough. But the opposition members do not seem to have a common vision to counter the government’s Crossroad for Peace initiative with a policy of their own.
It boils down to this.
Do the Armenians entrust the right to negotiate on their behalf to the government they elected or do not?
The Americans have given the right to negotiate on their behalf to the Trump administration they elected. The average Americans citizen is not privy of the negotiations that go behind the doors. I note this while stating that I did not vote for Trump to shape the American government. But he was elected and he is doing just that.
Coming to Armenia, I am under the impression that a vocal segment of the Armenian citizens in Armenia do not abide by the democratic system they instituted when they ratified their own constitution. They relentlessly question the good citizenship of the government the majority of the Armenian citizens elected. Furthermore, those who oppose the Crossroad for Peace Armenia’s strategic initiative, as noted, do not offer a counter strategic proposal.
What is more surprising, if not outright non-sensical for me, is that a vocal segment of the Diaspora Armenians, who are not citizens of Armenia, do not live in Armenia, did not vote as they cannot vote, do not have their personal fortunes staked on the state of the Republic of Armenia, and yet surprisingly, vehemently articulate in the Diaspora press, against the Armenian government and ignore and do not respect this government the citizens of Armenia elected, whose PM is Nikol Pashinyan and FM is Ararat Mirzoyan.
The Republic of Armenia cannot long endure without living peacefully with its neighbors in the region. It will come about only if the Armenians overwhelmingly stand behind their democratically elected government against their enemy. Otherwise, it is not farfetched that the third Republic of Armenia, like its two predecessors, may go into the history text books.
The fate of Republic of Armenia will be determined not by the stringencies of Aliyev, but by the good citizenship of the Armenians. And yes, the map presented by a recent French-German broadcast may not be farfetched, should the Armenians not live up to overcome the existential challenge the Republic of Armenia faces.
Yes, the fault is not in our stars.
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Link 1:Peace treaty: What does it accomplish - 1/3 -
Link 2: Peace treaty: Stay the course - 2/3 -
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