By Parvin Mirzazadeh

Vardan Oskanyan, the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, and now a man without a specific type of activity, decided that it was time to return to the Armenian political Olympus, from where he fled miserably in 2008, after the change of power in the country. At the beginning of the 2000s, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vardan Minasovich presented himself as a man of the West in the leadership of Armenia, which was then focused on a close alliance with the CSTO and the EAEU.

In those days, Oskanyan literally did not leave the capitals of Western states, where on the sidelines he assured his colleagues that the then president, the militant R. Kocharyan, was determined to change the country’s foreign policy orientation as soon as the Garabagh issue was resolved in favor Armenia. It was then that Vardan Jan, who had a mind-boggling diplomatic career, was appointed to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, only because he always boasted of his connections with Western politicians and the influential foreign diaspora, and had a good command of English, which distinguished him favorably from other members of Kocharyan’s team, who were mainly representatives of the “Karabakh” clan, militant bandits coming a long way through the First Garabagh War.

As the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia for 10 years (from 1998 to 2008), Oskanian “distinguished himself” by blatantly lying to the international community, speaking about the “readiness” of the Armenian side to come to a peace agreement with Azerbaijan. At the same time, he took an irreconcilable position at the negotiations under the auspices of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, where he demanded that the occupation of Azerbaijani territories be recognized as the “legitimate” right of the “winner” Armenia.

Everyone already knows how it all ended. The unlucky diplomat V. Oskanyan lost his lucrative sinecure - the post of head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008, falling out of favor with the third President of Armenia Serzhik Sargsyan, who himself preferred to control the cash flows coming from the foreign diaspora, without the need for such intermediaries, who put the lion's share of the proceeds money in his pocket for a bad day. Left out of work after resigning from the post of minister, Vardan Minasovich tried his luck in the domestic political field and even at some point took part in parliamentary elections as an opposition candidate. But alas, luck turned away from him and for many years Oskanian vegetated in the margins, only occasionally appearing in public.

The Velvet Revolution of May 2018 and the coming to power of pro-Western forces led by N. Pashinyan gave Oskanyan hope of returning to the Armenian political establishment, but the new Armenian authorities did not need the old seasoned liar with suspicious connections in the North and West and Vardan Minasovich went to the bottom again. Thus, Vardan jan remained silent until November 2020, when he decided to get down to business in order to return to power again on the wave of dissatisfaction with Nikol for the defeat of Armenia in the Second Garabagh War. And Oskanian suffered.... Over the past three years, he has not left the front pages of the Armenian media, where he wholeheartedly throws mud at the current Armenian authorities for “capitulation,” inability to “conduct diplomacy” and the loss of “national identity,”

Vardan Minasovich seemed to have perked up after a long lethargic sleep. He began to speak on all possible media platforms on occasion and without occasion, harshly criticizing the current Armenian authorities and promoting himself as the new “savior” of the illusory dream of “Miatsum-Artsakh”, which has already rotted in the dustbin of history. Either V. Oskanyan assured the Armenian society that he knows how to “return” the lost Azerbaijani territories, then he said that it is necessary to change the “philosophy” of the negotiation process, where Armenia should take a “tough” position that will bring “success”. The incorrigible liar V. Oskanian lies just to arouse interest in his person, whose reputation is already greatly damaged by the criminal acts of his unlucky son.

Having grown a beard for greater “respect,” V. Oskanian has adopted new technologies and widely uses social networks, hoping that influential representatives of the Armenian diaspora will notice him and open their wallets to him again so that he can regain his former, lost luster for years of forced vegetation in the shadows. All his speeches and tweets are sharp criticism of Nikol Vovaevich, whom he still cannot forgive for rejecting the hand extended by Vardan Minasovich. It’s no secret that he was so hoping to return to the comfortable chair of the head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, and N. Pashinyan chose and preferred the former unlucky speaker, an art critic by profession, Ararat Mirzoyan.

The latest events of September 19-20, 2023, which buried all the hopes of the world Armenians for a possible revenge, leading to the final end of the conflict and the elimination of the remnants of the separatist regime on the territory of Azerbaijan, inspired Oskanian to a number of new opuses on social networks (since the Armenian masses The media have already stopped publishing the former minister), full of malice, Turkish phobia and ignorance of the basic norms of international law.

To begin with, someone who has grown old in the field of “lobbying the interests” of the world’s Armenians stood up to “defend” Rubik (R. Vardanyan), who was arrested in Azerbaijan for supporting terrorism, who still has to while away long days in prison and whom he clearly always disliked for possible competition in domestic politics front.

However, money does not smell. Oskanyan rushed into the attack, demanding the immediate release of Rubik’s Cube, citing the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities allegedly “do not have the right” to detain an Armenian citizen who was “defending” his people. Of course, such zealous act of Vardan Minasovich, generously paid for by members of the Rubik’s family, was enthusiastically greeted by fans of the arrested R. Vardanyan, but did not find a response at all among ordinary Armenian citizens, for whom the fate of the fugitive Moscow billionaire oligarch is far from interests. Apparently, the “beacon” of Armenian diplomacy, who was constantly proud of his “deep knowledge” in the field of international law, forgot that any citizen of Armenia, before visiting Azerbaijan, must first obtain a visa, R. Vardanyan illegally entered the territory of the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan, without the consent of the relevant Azerbaijani authorities with a Russian passport, later renouncing his citizenship. For a long time, Ruben financed the separatist regime under the pretext of providing humanitarian assistance, carried out the illegal construction of military infrastructure in the occupied Azerbaijani territories and facilitated the resettlement of citizens of third countries there, was engaged in the theft of the region’s natural resources, and much more. It was R. Vardanyan, being a citizen of Russia, who sent his over-aged son to serve in the Armenian army in the occupied Azerbaijani territories, which he always showed off to the leaders of the foreign Armenian diaspora as an example of his “hyperpatriotism” and taught them to do the same.

This is only a short list of the crimes committed by Vardanyan, and for all these acts the client of the “free” lawyer V. Oskanian will have to answer to the court and then spend many years in Azerbaijani correctional institutions.

Realizing that you can’t make money especially on a failed map of Ruben Vardanyan, especially since the diaspora in the West doesn’t care about it, Vardan Minasovich made a “sensational” statement that can be qualified as his new know-how.

A short quote from his speech: “I often hear the opinion that for 30 years we have been told that “artsakh” cannot be part of Armenia. I am now throwing down the gauntlet to these people: if these people, someone from 1998 to 2020 will show me a statement from the head of any serious country, which says that “artsakh” (meaning the former occupied territories of the Garabagh region of Azerbaijan) is part of Azerbaijan, or the issue of “artsakh” should be resolved within the framework of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, I will ask for forgiveness all of you".

Well, what can I say after that? Apparently, the hapless liar needs to be reminded of 4 UN Security Council resolutions, and the decisions of the Budapest and Lisbon OSCE Summits, the resolutions of PACE, OIC, NATO, the Non-Aligned Movement and many other respected international and regional organizations, statements of dozens of individual countries, including Italy, Egypt, Turkiye, Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Romania, Hungary, China, the USA, Russia and many others, which clearly and specifically expressed support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, including the Garabagh region, without any exceptions or reservations. So it’s time for Mr. V. Oskanian to shave his beard and apologize for his lies and misinformation, so that the citizens of Armenia deceived by him can spit in his face for the fact that he led them by the nose for many years and called for them to fight to the “victorious end”.

Continuing to lie, V. Oskanyan, in his next slanderous speech, again accused the current Armenian authorities of saying that if they had followed the “essence and context” of the Tripartite Statement of November 10, 2020, “Garabagh and the Lachin corridor would have been Armenian.” Well, the former minister could not have come up with more nonsense, since judging by his speech, he cannot forgive N. Pashinyan for being left without a job at a time when he could have earned good money and at the same time raised his rating in the eyes of rich sponsors.

Well, first of all, the reading and interpretation of the Tripartite Statement in the distorted version of Oskanian is fundamentally different from what is written there. In reality, the Armenian side did everything possible to not fulfill these promises. As for the former minister’s complaints that the Armenian leadership was rushing in different directions, looking for support on the side, for the first time he told the truth, but distorted the meaning of these rushing. After all, attempts by official Yerevan not to fulfill its obligations under the Tripartite Statement and the search for new mediators who could influence Azerbaijan were the main reasons for the Armenian side’s deviations from fulfilling the points of this document.

Well, in order to exalt himself in the eyes of the audience, Vardan Minasovich stated that when he was the head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the “Madrid Principles” were adopted as the basis for negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, which would ultimately “lead to a referendum on independence” of the Armenian population . Having puffed out his cheeks with importance after this sensation, Oskanyan “forgot” to add that at the same time, Armenia had to ensure the liberation of all occupied Azerbaijani territories, withdraw its troops, ensure the return of refugees and displaced persons, and then the future of the Armenian population had to be decided on referendum, which was to be held on the territory of the entire Azerbaijan, and not, as proposed by the Armenian side, only on the territory of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous surrounding.

What a short memory this former chief Armenian diplomat has. Surely, he still thinks that no one will refute his lies and no one will bring him to light.

And at the end of his spacious speech, Oskanian said his main “smart thought”. They say that for him, in spite of everything, the Garabagh issue is not closed, which finally put an end to himself as a more or less serious diplomat. If for Vardan Minasovich the conflict is not over, then for the whole world this issue is closed once and for all. Probably, this incorrigible liar and rabid revanchist, who still lives in the past, wants to shed rivers of blood again, placing new victims on the altar of “artsakh-miatsum”, without soiling his sleek hands, which from birth held nothing except a spoon and fork. But all this will not change the course of history.

As President Ilham Aliyev stated, speaking on September 29, 2023 in Zangilan at the second Azerbaijan National Urban Planning Forum: “I advise both the leadership of Armenia, and those who stand behind them, and those who may be thinking about some unacceptable plans regarding Azerbaijan "not to test our patience once again. We are patient, but firm, and we can prove that we are right. Not because we have power, but because the truth is on our side." So Mr. “incorrigible liar” should not try Azerbaijan’s patience again, because the truth and international law are on the Azerbaijani side and the entire world community knows about this.