By Levon Baronian
The demand for the resignation of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute director, Edita Gzoyan, and the venomous branding of the Armenian Apostolic Church leadership as “foreign agents” are not the acts of a leader who has lost his way. They are the final, nakedly honest acts of a man who has reached the conclusion of a lifelong, anti-national agenda.
For years, many gave Nikol Pashinyan the benefit of the doubt, attributing his failures to incompetence. Today, that luxury is gone. It is now clear that Pashinyan did not fail upward into catastrophe; he brought the war on intentionally. By unilaterally stopping negotiations in 2019 and declaring his own “zero-point,” he provided Baku the exact justification it needed to attack. The 2020 war was the necessary fire he lit to burn down the “Historical Armenia” he has always loathed.
The “Real Armenia” as Turkish Propaganda
Pashinyan’s recent rhetoric regarding “Real Armenia” versus “Historical Armenia” is a cynical repackaging of Turkish propaganda that has been deployed against the nation for a century. For decades, Ankara has argued that the Republic is held hostage by a “Diaspora-Dashnak” agenda seeking “false” historical grievances.
Today, the Prime Minister of Armenia has become the primary spokesperson for this narrative. During his January 2025 meetings in Zurich, he went as far as to question the very perception of the Genocide, asking Armenians to “revisit the history” and understand “through whom we perceived the events.” By casting doubt on intergenerational trauma, he is effectively adopting the stance of a denialist state to “normalize” a future of submission.
Dismantling the Fourth Republic
The most dangerous phase of this agenda is the systematic destruction of the state’s legal foundation. To satisfy the latest preconditions from Ilham Aliyev, Pashinyan has declared that the “Declaration of Independence is built on the logic of conflict” and must be excised from the Constitution. On March 12, 2026, he explicitly stated, “Yes, there should be no reference to the Declaration of Independence in the new Constitution.” This is not “peace”; it is the legal liquidation of the Armenian State. By removing the preamble that references the 1989 unification with Artsakh, he is attempting to establish what he calls a “Fourth Republic”—a state defined not by its history or the will of its people, but by the borders Aliyev is willing to permit.
The Admission of the “Hijacked” State
During closed-door sessions with handpicked Diaspora sycophants in Europe, Pashinyan finally verbalized his ultimate target. He stated that “there has only been one real party in Armenia since independence—the ARF” and lamented that the “agenda of the Armenian republic was essentially hijacked by the ARF’s ideology.” By his own admission, he is fighting the concept of Armenian sovereignty itself. He views the ARF’s historic mission—the struggle for the security of Artsakh and the pursuit of justice for 1915—as a “burden” to be shed. This was on full display this month when he confirmed he forced Dr. Gzoyan’s resignation for giving U.S. Vice President JD Vance a book on Artsakh. Pashinyan asked rhetorically: “When the country’s prime minister says there is no Karabakh movement, what does it mean to give a foreign guest a book about the Artsakh issue?” To Pashinyan, an official who tells the truth about Armenian history is a threat to state security.
Riling the “Zombie” Base
As the June 2026 elections approach, Pashinyan is no longer trying to convince patriots. He is doubling down on a “zombie” base—a segment of society conditioned to view their own history and their own Church as enemies of “peace.” In Strasbourg this month, he stood before the European Parliament and accused the Church of being “vulnerable to foreign special services” and assuming the “leadership of the war party.” His message to his base is a binary threat: “Me or War.” This brazenness is a performance for his handlers. When he humiliates national institutions, he is signaling to Aliyev and Erdogan that the internal demolition is complete. In exchange, he seeks the 100% external financial and political support of a West that is more interested in Azerbaijani energy than Armenian survival.
Conclusion: The Choice of 2026
The upcoming election is a battle for survival against a regime that has spent decades preparing to surrender. Pashinyan is no longer hiding his agenda because he believes the nation is finally broken. He is betting that Armenians are too exhausted to resist the transformation of their homeland into a Turkish province.
Armenians must realize that the “Real Armenia” Pashinyan promises is an Armenia without an Armenian soul—a state with no memory of Artsakh, no moral authority from its Church, and no claim to the justice of its martyrs. It is up to Armenians to prove him wrong at the polls, or there will be nothing left of the nation to save.
