Pashinyan seeks to close Artsakh issue ‘once and for all’: Vartan Oskanian

Former Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of attempting to close the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) issue “for good”, blaming him for its loss.

“As a result of Pashinyan’s complete diplomatic, political and military incompetence, we have ended up in this situation. We’ve lost Karabakh, suffering heavy casualties,” he said in a Facebook video on Saturday.

Oskanian stressed that Pashinyan officially recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan at a meeting in Prague in 2022. 

“Now, Pashinyan is working to close the issue once and for all and erase it from our collective memory,” he asserted.

According to Oskanian, Pashinyan’s four key objectives include a change of the constitution to remove any references to Artsakh, the withdrawal of Armenia’s lawsuits against Azerbaijan from international courts, dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group and creation of difficult conditions for displaced Artsakh Armenians, thus encouraging their departure and effectively removing the issue of their return.

“This is unfolding before our very eyes, in broad daylight and they’re not even trying to hide it anymore,” he warned.