Alexis Rochette Krikorian
Milan Kundera taught us that history cannot be made up: it must be forgotten or rewritten. In Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan seems to have fully embraced this lesson, adopting a strategy reminiscent of "The Joke," in which the protagonist realizes too late that certain wrongs cannot be rectified; or of "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting," in which regimes use subtle manipulation and political orchestration to rewrite the past and impose their narrative.
If Armenia under Pashinyan presents itself as a democracy under construction, its current policies raise many questions to the contrary. Is it a matter of necessary diplomatic pragmatism or a rewriting of the past for the sake of immediate considerations?
Asymmetrical Normalization with Turkey
Against this background, the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations does not seem to be based on a balanced foundation, but rather on a series of unilateral concessions to Ankara's dictates. One of the most striking examples is the progressive weakening of the campaign for recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Once a pillar of state policy, this issue is now relegated to the background.
On January 24, 2025, during a meeting with representatives of the Armenian diaspora in Zurich, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF), certain statements made by Pashinyan caused misunderstandings. His ambiguous discourse on this fundamental issue prompted the CAAS (Comité des Associations Arméniennes et Arménophiles de Suisse, in which Hyestart is fully involved) to react with a press release[1] calling on the Diaspora to continue its commitment to the recognition, justice, and truth of the Armenian Genocide, if necessary alone or in partnership with organizations committed to the defense of human rights.
Erasing recent and present wounds
A few days later, on February 4, 2025, at a forum organized by the Atlantic Council in Washington, Pashinyan announced his intention to withdraw the complaints filed against Azerbaijan with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ)[2]. This decision is part of a strategy of appeasement that raises questions about the place of memory and justice in building a lasting peace.
For example, the memory of Anush Apetyan, an Armenian soldier who was raped, tortured, and murdered, and whose body was horribly mutilated post-mortem[3], seems to have been erased. Similarly, the Armenian prisoners of war martyred in Azerbaijan and the countless forcibly disappeared who are still detained in Azerbaijan, if they are not already dead, are left to their sad fate. This erasure of recent and ongoing suffering raises a central question: can peace be built without justice and memory?
Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim & Offender (DARVO) and the legitimization of a hostile narrative and actions
During a speech in Paris on February 11, 2025, Pashinyan seemed to give credence to the words of Ilham Aliyev who, in January 2025, called Armenia a "fascist country": a disturbing statement, to say the least, especially when one recalls that the ICJ has already demonstrated that state-sponsored racism is on the side of Baku, not Yerevan (decision of 7.12.21[4]).
In 2023, when the Azerbaijani parliament adopted a declaration calling the Armenian diaspora a "cancerous tumor of Europe"[5], there was no clear condemnation from the Armenian government in Yerevan. This lack of response has raised legitimate concerns about Pashinyan's willingness to defend Armenian rights internationally. The Armenian government's inaction in the face of the apparent planned disappearance of the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem can only heighten these concerns[6].
A closed dialog
Pashinyan’s meetings with the diaspora in Zurich and Paris took place in extremely controlled settings, designed as monologues rather than real debates. Some of the participants did not even know the language used (Eastern Armenian), underlining the artificial aspect of these exchanges.
This strict control raises the question of a genuine dialogue between the Armenian government and the Armenian diaspora, especially as the latter's role has been publicly questioned. As Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin stated in 2021: "The Armenian-Turkish process will destroy the arguments of the Armenian diaspora in the United States[7]". Indeed, Pashinyan now seems committed to a course of action that weakens the historical position of the Diaspora. His participation in Erdoğan's swearing-in ceremony on June 3, 2023, where he seemed to exchange sly smiles with representatives of the Turkish far-right, reinforced these questions.
Memory as a bulwark
Armenia under Pashinyan vacillates between oblivion, pragmatism, and renunciation, raising legitimate concerns in the Diaspora. But while some believe that history can be rewritten with declarations and agreements, they underestimate the power of collective memory.
As Kundera wrote: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against oblivion”. If it wants to counter the slow poison of disaffiliation, and above all, if it refuses this organized oblivion, it is now up to the Armenian Diaspora to continue this struggle with determination, intelligence, and solidarity.
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