The Armenian authorities currently announce with great expectations that the text of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan has been finalized.
Indeed, after the infamous forty-four-day war in 2020 that ended in defeat, over the past four years the Armenian authorities have been pursuing relentlessly what appears to be their main political strategic goal, the signing of a so-called peace treaty with Azerbaijan, which would guarantee a period of peace and tranquility for Armenia.
During these four years, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his main associates from the Civil Contract Party, without losing hope, used every opportunity to try and achieve the finalization of this treaty. During this entire period, on the contrary, a self-confident Azerbaijan, intoxicated by the success of the war, has continuously expressed ever increasingly arrogant and extraordinary demands and conditions directed at Armenia.
The peak of this unbridled arrogance is the naming of all of Armenia, till this very day, as “Western Azerbaijan” by the highest state officials of Azerbaijan.
It is under these circumstances that, during the past few days, the news suddenly spread in Armenia and then in the international press that Armenia and Azerbaijan had agreed on all points of the text for a “peace treaty.” It is noteworthy, however, that while the Armenian authorities are trying to present this event as an important achievement, and similarly, while European, American and neighboring countries are responding to this news with optimism, on the other hand, there is no information about the date or place of signing the treaty, and, significantly, Azerbaijan does not even address this issue in any way. Moreover, every day Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev still demands new concessions from Armenia.
In the face of all this, it is completely understandable that the raised voices of the majority of the Armenian people living in the homeland express concern and distrust. Moreover, they are awaiting with pessimism the details of the full content of this trumpeted agreement.
The diaspora, in its turn, shares the pessimism of the people of the homeland in general, in view of the current government’s repeatedly demonstrated practice of making defeatist concessions.
It is under these conditions that in response to the questions addressed to us in this regard, we too, as conscientious Armenians, based on the incomplete data available to the public at present about the “peace treaty,” express with this article our concern and, for the time being, pessimism.
This concern and pessimism are based on one major fundamental lapse: today, more than four years after the war, there is still a clear lack of military preparedness at a high level of sophistication for Armenia’s defense. Short of any other guarantee, the latter would be the most reliable and important guarantee of the true durability of any such treaty and, consequently, of its real value.
Indeed, history has repeatedly shown that the surest guarantee of any peace for any country at all times and in all places is its complete readiness to militarily defend itself, and resist any attack on its borders with its own forces.
In its absence, unfortunately, a paper document and its signatures alone are only worth as much as the value of the paper and the ink used.
(This article is a translation of the Armenian-language original.)
By Dr. Arshavir Gundjian, C.M.
