Abrahamyan’s lawyer, Ruben Melikyan, who used to call himself “human rights commissioner” in Khankendi, says that Abrahamyan is in the neutral zone of the Yerevan airport with his daughter Sune Abrahamyan, also a member of the Dashnaktsutyun party.
On July 13, Co-Chair of the Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations of France, prominent Dashnak Mourad Papazian, one of the authors of the resolution on the recognition of the so-called “NKR” “within the 1994 borders” adopted by the National Assembly of France, was sent back from the Zvartnots airport. As previously reported, after Armenia capitulated in the 44-day war, Papazian-led Armenian diaspora in France harshly attacked Pashinyan, calling him a “traitor”.
We also know that when Pashinyan visited Paris on the eve of the early parliamentary elections in Armenia in June 2021, Papazian organized protests against him.
At first, the Armenian authorities did not comment on the reason why Papazian was sent back from Yerevan to Paris on the next flight. But later it became known that it was because of Pashinyan’s disrupted visit to France last year. The Armenian government claims that Papazian was one of the organizers of the rally where participants threw tomatoes and eggs at the Armenian PM’s motorcade.
Observers believe that Masis Abrahamyan is not allowed into Yerevan for the same reason. It is no secret that since Armenia’s defeat in the 44-day war, the Dashnaktsutyun organizations in Europe and the United States have been organizing protests against the visits of Armenian officials, actively cooperating with the revanchist Armenian forces, and periodically taking to the streets to protest against Pashinyan’s government in Armenia. Like other revanchist forces, the Dashnaks in Armenia and the countries of the Armenian diaspora oppose the recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and the renunciation of Armenia’s claims to Karabakh, as well as the signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and the normalization of relations with Turkey.
Pashinyan’s undeclared war against the Dashnaks also has personal motives. Foreign Dashnaktsutyun organizations are conducting an aggressive propaganda campaign against the Armenian Prime Minister himself, calling him a “traitor” and a “Turk”.
Objectively, no other Armenian leader has ever had such obviously strained, borderline fractured relations with the Armenian diaspora. Analysts believe that Pashinyan’s alienation from the diaspora is primarily due to the dramatic weakening of its influence, which was not sufficient to prevent Armenia’s defeat in the 44-day war and to steer the post-war diplomatic efforts of leading Western countries in Yerevan’s favor.
In short, the myths about the powerful Armenian diaspora have collapsed, after which Pashinyan’s cabinet almost publicly distanced itself from its foreign compatriots. The latter in response ideologically support and possibly finance the Armenian revanchists who periodically organize street protests against Pashinyan in Yerevan and the provinces.
According to analysts, the role and influence of the Dashnaks, traditionally considered the leading force in the Armenian diaspora, should not be underestimated. It is no coincidence that when the united revanchist forces led by former Armenian presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan took to the streets of Yerevan in April of this year to demand the removal of Nikol Pashinyan, the protest columns were led by Dashnak Ishkhan Saghatelyan. This was a message from Sargsyan and Kocharyan to the diaspora, asking Armenian compatriots in France and the United States to support the struggle against Pashinyan more actively.
By the way, after the Armenian Prime Minister forbade Mourad Papazian to enter Yerevan, Saghatelyan publicly called him a “murderer” and a “dictator”.
“A murderous populist striving to become a dictator,” Ishkhan Saghatelyan posted on his Facebook page at the time. “Nikol Pashinyan seeks to establish an authoritarian regime while having no power (please do not confuse office with power). By not allowing Dashnak representatives into Yerevan, Pashinyan is complying with Turkey’s conditions.”
Farkhad Mammadov
Translated from Haqqin.az
