The latter insisted that he has on the contrary dramatically weakened the country and left it facing existential threats from Azerbaijan as well as Turkey.
Pashinian made the claim during an official ceremony to mark the 107th anniversary of an independent Armenian republic. The short-lived republic was officially proclaimed on March 28, 1918 as Armenian army and militia units defeated Ottoman Turkish forces trying to occupy Yerevan and the rest of modern-day Armenia. The decisive battle was fought from May 22-29, 1918 around Sardarapat, a village about 50 kilometers west of Yerevan.
Pashinian barely mentioned the battle in a speech at a Sardarapat war memorial that was again closed to ordinary visitors for the duration of the ceremony. Instead, he again touted his policies towards Azerbaijan and Turkey, saying that they have given Armenians a “historic opportunity to develop our sovereignty and to realize and perpetuate our statehood.”
“Today we are more of a state than ever, more sovereign than ever, more independent than ever,” Pashinian declared, adding that he has ushered Armenia in a “promising era of achievements.”
Armenian opposition leaders scoffed at the statement, saying that Pashinian’s track record has been disastrous for the country’s sovereignty and security. They pointed to Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh and subsequent recapture of the territory and Pashinian’s continuing concessions to Baku which they say can only spell more trouble for Armenia.
“When our homeland is constantly being lost piece by piece today due to their logic of concessions, what right do those people have to talk about … Armenianness, about our statehood?” said Armen Rustamian of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun).
Ishkhan Saghatelian, another Dashnaktsutyun leader, accused Pashinian and his political team of pursuing an “anti-Russian” and “pro-Turkish” policy.
“Their orientation is towards Turkey,” Saghatelian told reporters. “They try, of course, to present it under the guise of Western values, but [Pashinian] and the people around him have nothing to do with Western values and the West.”
Aram Manukian, a deputy chairman of former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK), claimed, for his part, that for the first time in its post-Soviet history Armenia risks losing its independence.
“Whatever they [Pashinian’s administration] say, their entire activity, all their steps represent a process of cutting and tearing apart our sovereignty,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Manukian said that Pashinian’s plans to try to enact a new Armenian constitution demanded by Azerbaijan alone make mockery of his claims about the country’s independence and sovereignty.
“These people have no right to talk about independence, they have no right to utter that word,” he said. “They are enemies of the independence process.”