Election test for Armenia: Peace agenda vs separatist pressure |
For more than thirty years, Armenia–Azerbaijan relations, which have become a source of conflict in the South Caucasus region, or more precisely, Armenia’s territorial claims, have once again resurfaced like a chronic illness just months before elections in Armenia. For several days now, both during pre-election campaign meetings with the public and in parliamentary speeches, the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been studying new ideas emerging from the domestic audience and attempting to gauge the public’s attitude towards the concept of peace.
However, the latest outcomes clearly show that preparations for peace in Armenia are still not at the desired level. For example, during a recent public outreach campaign conducted by Pashinyan in the tube station last week, the reaction of an Armenian woman to a map of Armenia presented by the Prime Minister to her young child was notably harsh and rhetorical. The Armenian resident accused Nikol Pashinyan of “handing over Karabakh to Azerbaijan” and stated that the model presented did not reflect her country’s map. Another elderly Armenian citizen voiced similar claims, accusing Pashinyan and alleging that his country had supposedly lost its "sovereign territories". This is a clear manifestation that a segment of society in Armenia........