Silence on the border: why is it unprofitable for Narek Karapetyan?

"For years, the residents of Goris have not seen Turks, and today there are no more Armenians on the other side of the village," Narek Karapetyan, coordinator of the "people's" movement in Goris, told reporters in Goris the other day.

In Armenia, they have always loved to give epic names. During the time of Serzh Sargsyan, the then Minister of Defense came up with programs for the army called "This is me" and "I have the Honor." The opposition faction called "I have the Honor" is still active in parliament, but, tellingly, it includes people who do not have honor and do not even know what it is. And how epic does "Our way" sound, huh?

The essentially anti-popular revanchist movement "In our Way" appeared after the arrest in Yerevan of Narek Karapetyan's uncle, Russian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan. Karapetyan arrived in Armenia from Moscow as heavy artillery to support the church and reinforce the spirit of the revanchist opposition. Well, I stayed here. Now he's strengthening his spirit from behind bars. "In our opinion" is funded by the Karapetyans. Unlike Ruben Vardanyan, Karapetyan spends money on protecting his beloved not outside, but inside Armenia. Vardanyan's millions are spent on buying politicians, fraudulent lawyers and corrupt journalists in the West, and the Karapetyans direct them to support revanchist circles. The former hopes for Western pressure on Baku, the latter hopes for liberation after the elections, which the revanchists will win with his money. Neither one nor the other has succeeded so far.

"In our opinion," like all revanchist parties that have proliferated in the run-up to the elections, relies on deceiving the already deluded population. It organizes ostentatious charity events, distributing food packages to voluntary migrants from Karabakh on behalf of "philanthropist Samvel Karapetyan," promising to return them if Pashinyan is toppled.  

The other day, Karapetyan, with his propaganda gang and journalists, visited Goris and conducted a treatment among the population of the border village of Teh (Dyg). During the occupation of the Lachin district, the border was erased and the villagers began to consider the entire surrounding area as "Armenian." In the occupied lands of Lachin, Zangelan and Jabrayil, residents of the border villages of Armenia sowed fields, grazed cattle, laid out gardens and vegetable gardens, and scoundrels like today's Narek Karapetyan convinced them that this would always be the case now. However, after the 44-day war, they had to get acquainted with the realities. These realities turned out to be very painful and fraught with losses. The border returned to its place, and all the fertile lands that had been illegally exploited by the Armenians for thirty years were lost. All farmland, all rich pastures. The villagers of Those villages are so used to using someone else's that in the five post-war years they still have not found a replacement for it. Syunik is Zangezur. It doesn't matter if it's western or eastern, Zangezur is very rich on both sides of the border. No one prevents the same residents of Texas from developing their own territories. Although no, the Karapetyans are in the way, who benefit from the fact that the Armenian border villages remain in need and constantly look to where nothing will ever come from.

In addition to the constant nostalgia for others, the villagers are also brought up to fear the Azerbaijani border guards. Until recently, the revanchists regularly organized demonstrative "attacks" for these purposes and scattered fake photos on social networks and media controlled by the opposition, simulating "tension" on the border with Syunik. The provocations were organized very clumsily and served the interests of external players, who needed a reason for increased "concern" for this strategic region of Armenia. By the way, the recent information stuffing about an alleged attempt to infiltrate from the Azerbaijani side in the direction of Meghri serves the same purpose. The Armenian Defense Ministry literally exploded with indignation, very harshly refuting this revanchist fake. Apparently, the Armenian opposition is too unhappy with the silence on the border, and if there have been no shootings for more than a year, then they need to be invented.

After the meeting in Washington on August 8, the Prime Minister seized the initiative, effectively bringing such a partner as the United States to Syunik, and other interested parties had to step aside. Which does not suit the revanchists and personally Narek Karapetyan, who has his own plans. He is active in the region, opening representative offices "In our way" near the borders with Azerbaijan, arousing the local population and preventing people from doing what they really have.

The revanchists are very adept at exploiting the darkness and the problems with IQ among the local peasants. Pointing towards the internationally recognized border of Azerbaijan, Karapetyan stated that seven years after Pashinyan came to power, not a single Armenian lives on the other side of the village, that is, in Lachin. The authorities "handed over" hundreds of hectares of land to Azerbaijan without any resistance. And those listening to him nodded like trained seals in a circus.

When we talk about the limitations of IQ, we don't want to offend anyone. It's just that if they had a low level of intelligence, but sufficient for the ability to analyze, the mass, depersonalized by the zombie, would not nod in agreement and would not burn with anger, but would ask the question that literally begs: why haven't they seen a single Azerbaijani for thirty years? There is no doubt that no one has ever asked such a question. Just as the local population stupidly used the gifts of someone else's land for many decades, they stupidly continue to support the fervent speeches of people whose millions go to preserve their status as cannon fodder.

Since the alternative road for connecting Armenia with Khankendi was opened in the spring of 2023, according to a Trilateral Statement, and the Azerbaijani army took up its legitimate positions on the five-kilometer section of the former "Lachin corridor", the revanchist opposition has not stopped chattering about the proximity of Azerbaijani posts to the village of Teh. They say kids are afraid to go to school. This hysteria pursued unrealistic goals. No one would demand that Azerbaijan donate part of its territory to Armenians so that Armenian schoolchildren would get rid of propaganda-inspired fears. Over the past thirty years, the village has grown towards the occupied lands, and this is a problem only for its residents, not for Azerbaijan. The same applies to other border villages, which expanded into occupied lands during the occupation and, consequently, lost everything after the war. In the villages where the demarcation and demarcation took place last May, there is still a howl about the lost objects and houses that the Armenians used illegally during the occupation years.

Armenians, especially residents of border villages, need to drive out the emissaries of the revanchists. During the return of the four Gazakh villages to Azerbaijan, the notorious priest Galstanyan tried to imitate a popular protest, but he failed to rouse the residents of the delimited villages. Because even if they lost something, they knew that everything happens according to the law and making too much noise won't change anything. The inhabitants of the northern border villages turned out to be more holy than the Zangezurs, and they expelled Zrbazan. Having failed, he decided to go to Yerevan, but failure awaited him there too.    

So, instead of applauding provocateurs like Narek Karapetyan and wiping their eyes with handkerchiefs, the residents of Goris and Kapan should expel the emissaries of the revanchists from their villages and towns. Because no one will ever be able to return the situation to the moment before September 27, 2020. That's out of the question. Karapetyan and others like him are lying, promising to do this. The billions of Uncle Samvel and Papa Karen won't help here. If anything happens, bank accounts will only help them get out of the game themselves and not get hurt.

There will be many more similar losses in the process of delimitation of neighbors. It is possible that the Azerbaijani border posts will be even closer than they are today, when the border will be clarified and demarcated definitively. The neighbors need to be prepared for this. The revanchists do not want to consider such a prospect, they prefer to fool the Armenians and promise to return everything if they come to power. This is a deliberate lie.

The "correct diplomacy" promised by the opposition will lead to new tensions, and this time the front will no longer be moving to the east, but to the west.