Opinion

A Military Trophy Park-Museum dedicated to Azerbaijan’s military victory over Artsakh was inaugurated in Baku. It is a gruesome display that includes hundreds of helmets of Armenian soldiers killed in battle and grossly exaggerated life-size figures of dead and dying captives.

Although Nikol Pashinyan and Donald Trump are different in demeanor and policy, both lean heavily on the populist playbook. Each is more comfortable fighting against resistant forces rather than governing through institutions.

Armenia’s Government must quickly shape a coherent and powerful vision of what it wants to gain from the transport talks. If they get it wrong, the country is at risk of being outmaneuvered by Azerbaijan and taken advantage of by Russia.

With Russia and now Turkey having new footholds in the South Caucasus following the 2020 Artsakh War, will Washington under the Biden administration attempt to counter these new developments?

Instead of playing semantics, PM Nikol Pashinyan should have taken responsibility for the war's disastrous outcome and resigned. A golden opportunity to push the democratic movement forward was squandered.

Armenia’s Constitution states that the Armed Forces must ensure the security, defense and territorial integrity of Armenia, as well as the inviolability of its borders. Intervention by the army in political processes is a violation of the principle of political neutrality and civilian control over them.

The demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation by the Army’s General Staff is a violation of the civilian-military doctrine that has served as an institutional and normative standard within Armenia’s state system and establishes a highly dangerous precedent.

Several popular myths that had become deeply entrenched in Armenian society began collapsing after the war. Today, new myths are being constructed. Will Armenians risk fooling themselves into disingenuous politics and disastrous policy based on a set of new myths?

Armenia can either unify around a shared vision for the future or digress into internal political strife. Artin DerSimonian explores what a unified Armenian vision for the future could include if the country is to continue on the path of healthy socio-economic development.

A concerted effort is needed to overcome the crisis the Armenian nation is facing. To do that, we need to understand where we are now, be honest, admit mistakes, learn lessons and move forward, writes Hovsep Kanadyan.