Reason behind Pashinyan's fear could be his pretext to evade signing peace agreement

Armenian media outlets claim that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan lately takes heed of his own safety. The head of Armenian state can no longer hide his concern and he is clearly afraid of something, but no one knows what exactly it is.

Besides that media outlets draw attention that Pashinyan came to the last parliamentary session accompanied by a large number of security guards accompanied by police officers. It is said that the bodyguards of the Prime Minister followed the deputies of the Armenian Parliament and the entrance to the hall where the session was held was secured by armed guards in civilian clothes along with the employees of the Armenian State Security Service.

In addition, it should be noted that this step of Nikol Pashinyan coincides with the date when he noted that he was very close to signing the peace agreement with Azerbaijan and recognizing Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. These words of Nikol Pashinyan were not welcomed in Armenian society. Some politicians accused him of treason.

In a comment on the issue of what Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan could be wary of, expert Farhad Mammadov pointed out that the conspiracy case of assassination is possible, because terrorism is a common practice for Armenian society to achieve political goals for centuries.

“Especially since the 60s of the 19th century, Armenian political parties have been engaged in terrorism in across the world. Throughout the history of statehood, the speaker and the prime minister have been killed in the parliament in Armenia in the last 30 years. I mean, this tradition still exists. Therefore, Pashinyan's phobia about personal security is understandable,” Farhad Mammadov noted.

However, the pundit did not rule out Pashinyan's maneuver of taking advantage of this Armenian tradition; by pretending that he could share the destiny of former PM Vazgen Sargsyan and National Assembly Speaker Karen Demirchyan who was assassinated by an armed Armenian terror organization in the Parliament in 1999, Nikol Pashinyan can simply evade signing the peace agreement or bargain.

“Given that Pashinyan is a manipulator, the strengthening of these personal security measures can be explained in two ways. First up, really this is such danger and he is afraid that someone may want to eliminate him. Secondly, he wants to demonstrate to the US and the West, the main mediators, by creating fear, that he may not sign the peace agreement for this very reason. I mean, as though Armenian society is against the agreement and there may be terrorism against him. Such approaches have been demonstrated by the previous Armenian leaders, as well. They put forward such a narrative that the political leader who recognizes Karabakh as Azerbaijani territory will be killed by Armenians and there will be no future for this. Armenians used such narratives in these processes,” the Mammadov said.

The expert also has not ruled out foreign influences. He opined that there could be a peace agreement on the horizon, but the foreign influence within the Armenian society will be activated to hinder the peace process.

“Pashinyan has already been pushed to the wall by the issue of the peace agreement, and the country that is pushing him to the wall is Azerbaijan. It is already known that a peace agreement formed on the basis of the principles proposed by Azerbaijan has been under negotiation for almost a year. It can make progress here mainly through the mediation of the United States. In such a case, the forces against it in the Armenian society, mainly the foreign forces or Russian-oriented forces, become active when the issues related to the signing of this agreement become relevant. It can be predicted that campaigns against Pashinyan will be launched in the Russian media in the coming days and pro-Russian political forces in Armenia will become active. This indicates that the process has already reached the threshold of the next signing,” the Farhad Mmmadov added.