Dashnaktsutyun organized the rally in Yerevan on the 34th anniversary of the proclamation of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It came almost two years after an Azerbaijani military offensive that restored Baku’s full control over Karabakh and forced the region’s entire ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia.
The Karabakh Armenians’ right to return to their homeland was the main theme of the speeches delivered at the gathering. Virtually all speakers lambasted Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government for its refusal to champion that right in talks with Azerbaijan and on multilateral international platforms.
Pashinian made clear that the Karabakh issue is closed for him even before his August 8 talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev hosted by Trump. Accordingly, there is no reference to it in an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty that was initialed, but not signed, at the White House.
“The Artsakh question is not resolved, nor is it closed,” Karabakh’s exiled parliament said in a statement read out by one of its members during the rally.
The Armenian government must seek “the return of the people of Artsakh to their homeland” and their ability to live there “freely, safely, and with dignity,” said the statement also signed by Dashnaktsutyun and several other Armenian opposition parties.
Pashinian declared on August 18 that this would only undermine the “peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan” in Washington. He said the more than 120,000 Karabakh refugees should stop hoping for repatriation and instead “settle down in Armenia.”
Dashnaktsutyun leader Armen Rustamian insisted that the Washington agreements, which also include Pashinian’s pledge to open a U.S.-administered transit corridor for Azerbaijan, have “nothing to do with real peace.” He claimed that Pashinian made more concessions to Baku without securing any safeguards against further Azerbaijani attacks on Armenia.
“Yes, the three participants of the Washington meeting got what they wanted,” Rustamian told the crowd that gathered in Yerevan’ Liberty Square. “Trump became a real contender for the Nobel prize, Aliyev received yet another portion of his fulfilled demands, and Pashinian got peace on paper, or rather a paper peace, which he needs badly ahead of the elections.”
“Our people can no longer afford to again become a victim of deceit. It is incumbent on all of us except this regime to not allow expectations of illusory peace to tempt some people to help this regime retain power,” he added, alluding to the elections expected in June 2026.