Every time Armenia\u2019s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan makes a public statement, he ends up damaging Armenia\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest example of Pashinyan\u2019s detrimental words is the 90-minute interview he gave to Armenia\u2019s Public Television on November 22, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first question was about Pashinyan\u2019s recent firing of six top government officials by sending them a text message on a Sunday evening. The journalist asked him, why did he fire them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pashinyan stated that their \u201cdismissals are not personalized but are rather related to systems.\u201d Nevertheless, he said that the fired officials \u201cwere doing a good job.\u201d The journalist pointed out that the Prime Minister made no systemic changes, but simply fired the individuals. He explained that these officials had made remarkable systemic improvements, but later, as time passed, they became part of the system. He went on admitting that \u201ca similar thing happens to me too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The journalist, Tatev Danielyan, then questioned Pashinyan about his dismissal of the Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, Karen Andreasyan, \u201ca body completely independent of the executive branch. It turns out that at the Prime Minister’s, so to speak, urging, he decided to submit a resignation letter. Now your opponents say, what is this, if not pressure from one branch of government on the other?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pashinyan gave the unconvincing explanation that \u201cthere was no urging from the Prime Minister, there was a request from the Prime Minister.\u201d The Journalist responded by saying: \u201cthere is a rupture between the statements and actions of the executive branch about an independent judicial system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no separation among the three branches of the government. Pashinyan single-handedly runs all three branches: the executive, legislative and judiciary. Anyone who deviates from his wishes is fired and replaced. Strangely, this is a man, who speaks about democracy day and night, violates the basic principles of democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pashinyan then made the mistake of saying the officials he \u2018requested\u2019 to resign have two options: \u201cfulfill the request and not to fulfill that request.\u201d The journalist pointed out that if the official refused to resign, there would \u2018consequences.\u2019 Pashinyan pleaded ignorance by asking, \u2018what consequence?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked if Pashinyan had consulted his advisors before firing the six officials, he proudly replied: \u201cThis was a one-person decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The journalist then asked if Pashinyan had requested the resignation of Narek Zeynalyan, a member of the ruling parliamentary bloc. Pashinyan said, yes. Zeynalyan had resigned, but fellow parliamentary member Hovik Aghazaryan has so far refused Pashinyan\u2019s \u2018request\u2019 to resign. Pashinyan said: \u201cI hope that my request will not remain unanswered.\u201d Since that request, Aghazaryan has been interrogated several times by the authorities on suspicion of fraudulent activities. This is yet another example of the Prime Minister\u2019s undue interference in the affairs of another branch of the government, the Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pashinyan had a lengthy discussion about his persistent efforts to convince Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan to sign what he calls \u201ca peace treaty,\u201d despite the fact that Aliyev has not only shown no interest in signing such a document, but has escalated his demands for further concessions from Armenia. Pashinyan does not seem to understand the difference between the signing of a piece of paper which he calls \u201ca peace treaty,\u201d and actual peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the biggest gaffe Pashinyan made during his 90-minute interview was equating Aliyev\u2019s demands for a fake \u201cWestern Azerbaijan\u201d to replace the Republic of Armenia with Armenian demands for the historical territory of \u201cWestern Armenia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without being asked any question on this subject, Pashinyan reluctantly offered: \u201cLet me say one more thing, but OK, I won\u2019t say it.\u201d But when the journalist urged him to say it, he dropped a major bombshell: \u201cOK. I will say it. We get so upset and take it so hard, consider it a problem, somewhere some people use the term Western Azerbaijan, right? But we say, Western Armenia, don’t we think that it irritates some people? Just like we are irritated when they say Western Azerbaijan, the same way when they say Western Armenia, others are irritated. Now again, they will say, the routine treason, the vile scum. Today I am in a situation and in a responsibility, I am obligated to talk with our people and show them the cause-and-effect relationships, chains. If I don’t do that, it means that I am consciously leading our country towards the loss of statehood. I cannot allow that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a very shameful statement by the head of the government of Armenia. One would expect such an answer from Erdogan or Aliyev, but not from Armenia\u2019s leader. Incredibly, even Erdogan and Aliyev have not made such an anti-Armenian statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The final question, believe it or not, was: <\/strong>\u201cCan you tell me the real reason why you decided to shave [your beard]?\u201d In keeping with his usual practice of dodging questions, Pashinyan said: \u201c\u2026it is clear that a change in the image is taking place\u2026. I can only say one thing. When I decided to shave, I decided the day: I will do it on my eldest daughter’s birthday, although now that this interview goes on the air, my other daughters will ask why on her birthday, not on our birthday? I am convinced that Ashot [his son] is not ambitious in that regard, not only in that regard, and he will not raise such a question.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every time Armenia\u2019s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan makes a public statement, he ends up damaging Armenia\u2019s interests. The latest example of Pashinyan\u2019s detrimental words is the 90-minute interview he gave to Armenia\u2019s Public Television on November 22, 2024. The first question was about Pashinyan\u2019s recent firing of six top government officials by sending them a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":784505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[10794],"class_list":["post-824394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian","tag-pashinyan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}