“If we had not made the decision to start the process of delimitation and demarcation of borders with Azerbaijan in April 2024, today the Republic of Armenia would, at best, be under external governance.”
“Elchi” reports that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said this during his speech at the European Parliament.
“Moreover, it was very difficult to make this decision regarding delimitation. With the encouragement of the de facto head of our church (Karekin II), one of the archbishops (Bagrat Galstanyan) launched a movement in Armenia not only against the implementation of delimitation but also demanding the re-ignition of the ‘Karabakh Movement’, i.e., the conflict,” he stated.
The Prime Minister noted that tens of thousands of citizens had taken to the streets, believing the disinformation campaign conducted by high-ranking clergy and the opposition forces supporting them:
“They claimed that the government was allegedly preparing to hand over Armenia’s sovereign territories, ancient churches, and settlements located in those territories to Azerbaijan.
Can you imagine what this meant for our government and political team, which came to power as a result of the 2018 popular revolution? And how did we solve this problem? We spoke with the people who elected us. And now in Kirants – which had become a symbol by the leaders of the church-opposition movement, and people were convinced that the village would be emptied and abandoned – after the delimitation, with the support of the government, there has been an approximately 50 percent increase in the number of houses, and today it is a completely calm, safe, and vibrant settlement. The ancient churches, meanwhile, are being restored or repaired.”
According to Pashinyan, he personally organizes visits of civil society representatives to Kirants to show people what they mean by “peace” and what they mean by “Real Armenia”: “We have established peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the Almaty Declaration of December 21, 1991, by recognizing each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence.”
The Armenian Prime Minister declared that despite the efforts of the clergy and the foreign forces supporting them, there would be no new war between his country and Azerbaijan: “We will not allow a new conflict and a new war. We will not allow the consciousness, peace, and independence gained at the cost of thousands of victims to be sacrificed for anti-Christian purposes.”
He added that today some are using the Armenian church to promote conflict, war, or violence within Armenia, thereby overstepping the boundaries of the country’s laws: “This cannot be accepted in any country.”