If the leadership of Armenia permanently abandons their trickery, and if Azerbaijan and Turkey provide security guarantees, then they can both manage to obtain a "cadastral document" for the country and prevent various forces from using Armenians as "pawns," thereby avoiding the outbreak of the next tension hotspot in the region.
Everyone has seen over the past years how successful and effective the roadmap presented by the President of Azerbaijan is. Even Nikol Pashinyan, who once insisted that there was a long-standing hostility between Azerbaijan and Armenia that absolutely required a mediator, and who tried to lobby forces looking for an opportunity to meddle in the region, has now admitted that it is possible to talk, get along, trade, and cooperate normally without a third party’s involvement, and often thanks Azerbaijan.
There are not few who cause turmoil in Armenia. In this regard, we are aware that Pashinyan's team has been painstakingly working toward June 7 ahead of the election. Exactly 40 days remain. Pashinyan will work tirelessly to safely get through the 40th door. He will fight not only against internal revanchists and radical opposition but also against those who are puppets in the hands of various forces and against plans by different capitals.
At the beginning of May, during the days when the European Union summit is held and later at the European Political Bureau's meeting, Yerevan will be seen in Russia's eyes as a "Second Ukraine" or a country where the "Moldova scenario will be repeated." In recent days, the finger-wagging from Russia to Yerevan has taken on a consistent character. Various officials express threats about the country's economy falling into dire straits.
In 2023, the Armenian "HayaQue" national civic union, established that year, appealed to the EU member states, their governments, the President of the Council of Europe, the President of the European Commission, and the President of the European Parliament to reconsider their participation in the 8th Summit of the European Political Union to be held in Yerevan. This is a step that exceeds the capacity of this clumsy organization. "HayaQue," a part of the revanchists acting on Kremlin’s signals, was mainly founded to demand amendments to Armenia's criminal legislation to criminalize the recognition of Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan. Now such a foolishly ambitious organization is trying to present itself as a protector of Armenia.
If such intellectuals gain influence over Armenian politics, it is not hard to imagine what events might occur in the region. For the time being, Pashinyan has pinned a map with undefined Armenian borders to his collar and is working to win the elections.
Apparently, the Armenian prime minister has understood that the serious mistakes he made last week might come at a high cost. Permitting a march devoted to the false "genocide" claims against Turkey, appearing before his fabricated monument, and the fact that no one has been held accountable for the burning of the Turkish and Azerbaijani flags—called a guarantee of security—will not go unanswered.
Pashinyan has taken action because he understands this perspective. He held a working discussion with Interior Minister Arpine Sarkisyan. From those discussions, it became clear that the new Armenian biometric passports will not feature depictions of Mount Ararat. Armenian media quoting Pashinyan write that the implementation of biometric passports and identity cards is in its final stage; they will be available to citizens starting in the fall of 2026.
Indeed, the new passports also reflect "the depiction of the Holy Echmiadzin's Mother throne-crown symbolizing the adoption of Christianity as the state religion in 301," which itself is not unequivocally acceptable. If the three churches are historically in Western Azerbaijan, and Armenians' migration to the Erivan Khanate occurred two centuries ago after the Russia-Iran war, and the original owners of this region were deported, then the very images presented are yet another forgery. The inclusion in Armenian passports of historical monuments such as Erivan, Alagöz, Lake Göyçə, and the "Berdkunk of the 10th century," located in the Göyçə district, which date back to the 2nd-1st millennium BC and were rebuilt again, including the White Fortress is also controversial. Thus, Pashinyan claims to be building the "real Armenia," but he transfers addresses utterly unrelated to Armenians to the passports of the country's citizens.
Anyway, we overlook certain matters to achieve peace. However, it is also true that if territorial claims on Turkey's provinces and Azerbaijan's lands remain inscribed in Armenia's Constitution, simply removing Mount Ararat's image from passports will not solve the problem. Therefore, the main demand put forward by the President of Azerbaijan must be fulfilled: all territorial claims must be removed from Armenia's Constitution and normative legal acts. Otherwise, signing a peace treaty itself will not yield results.
In recent days, Armenian revanchists have persistently tried to interfere in Azerbaijan's internal affairs as well. Interestingly, revanchists connected to the Kremlin receive support from some European capitals too; sometimes, returnees among Armenians babble about reclaiming Karabakh, or they make a fuss alleging that some monument is supposedly being destroyed. Just as during the occupation period, the Karabakh issue again unites capitals that are hostile to each other.
Meanwhile, Khojaly criminal Robert Kocharyan is once again plotting grave mistakes beyond his reach. At a meeting in Masis city, he asserted that speaking about the "right to return to Karabakh" is realistic in the current situation. According to him, the current international conditions allow this. Kocharyan believes that if they do not act amid the unstable global situation, it will be too late later. Armenians have always been rewarded during the world's turbulent times, their teeth dripping with juice. After the Russia-Iran wars, they gained a "homeland," after World War I they obtained a country, after World War II they accomplished mass deportations of Azerbaijanis and replaced them with Armenians from other countries. Finally, after the USSR's collapse, came the Karabakh movement... Bloodthirsty Kocharyan from Stepanakert is going into a final battle with Pashinyan, who aims to build a Real Armenia and whose election platform is built on peace theses, with a new war slogan.
Making him regret it is also our—Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s—task. Deputy Gudrat Huseynli made a very correct initiative: "Official Baku should demand Kocharyan’s extradition from Yerevan! A trial in absentia can be held; a court decision against Kocharyan can be issued. We can demand from Armenia that he be handed over to Azerbaijan. Perhaps we have delayed taking steps in this direction. But this step can still be taken now. And not just him, but also Sargsyan and other Armenian criminals who have so far avoided justice, who committed war crimes and heinous crimes against civilians." It is the right time. I am sure that Nikol Pashinyan himself is waiting for such a request from Baku and also wants to clear his way. Just as he has never, even once, called for the release of butchers who were rightfully punished in Baku. The road to constitutional amendments by Pashinyan also passes over the coffins of butchers like Kocharyan...