Former Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian criticized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s speech in the European Parliament, saying it demonstrates a lack of diplomatic understanding.
In a Facebook post commenting on the address, Oskanian said Pashinyan spoke from the European Parliament’s podium about alleged violations of spiritual rules by bishops of the Armenian Apostolic Church, claiming they were “agents of influence” trying to obstruct his “peace.”
“Why Armenia has ended up in this situation — the answer lies precisely in this simple reality,” he wrote.
According to Oskanian, anyone who still doubts that the war, the post-war disasters, the depopulation of Nagorno-Karabakh, the occupation of Armenia’s sovereign territories, and agreeing submissively to all of Azerbaijan’s conditions could have been avoided if the country had been led by someone with an understanding of diplomacy, foreign policy and the value of words should simply listen to one fragment of Pashinyan’s speech.
“If you cannot imagine what kind of absurd — at best laughable, and at worst repulsive — impression such a speech might leave on those sitting in the hall, I cannot describe it in words.
And if you can imagine it, then it is also not difficult to understand that since 2018 the person leading the country has never understood — neither during the negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh, nor before the war, nor during it, nor after it, nor even today — what can be said and where, what cannot be said, what is expected from you, what no one is interested in, and what exposes your weakness, ignorance, fears and plain incompetence.
Why Armenia has ended up in this situation — the answer lies precisely in this simple reality,” the post says.
