Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has broken with decades of national policy by declaring that Nagorno-Karabakh "was not ours," marking a seismic shift in Yerevan's approach to its neighbor Azerbaijan as the two nations edge toward a historic peace agreement.
The remarks, reported by Euronews, represent the most explicit rejection yet of Armenia's long-standing territorial claims over the mountainous region. For three decades, Karabakh served as the defining conflict of Armenian identity and politics—a wound that shaped foreign policy, military spending, and national consciousness.
"We must be honest with ourselves and with our people," Pashinyan stated during a public address. "Karabakh was not ours according to international law, and we cannot build our future on illusions." The statement provoked immediate outcry among Armenian diaspora communities and opposition parties, who accused the Prime Minister of betraying national interests and abandoning ethnic Armenians displaced during Azerbaijan's 2023 military offensive.
In the Caucasus, as across mountainous borderlands, ancient identities and modern geopolitics create intricate patterns of conflict and cooperation. Pashinyan's calculated gamble reflects not only military realities on the ground but also Armenia's increasingly urgent need to escape Moscow's orbit. Russia's failure to defend Armenia during the 2020 war and its subsequent preoccupation with have left without its traditional security guarantor.
