In this special security-focused episode of the “Dilemma” podcast, these issues are analyzed by historian Nzhdeh Hovsepyan, publicist Gor Madoyan, and Areg Kochinyan, head of the “Research Center on Security Policy.”
Questions discussed:
- Are fears of being exterminated justified, and how should we work with these fears?
- Why has the Artsakh issue been mythologized?
- What consequences can result from isolating Armenia’s history from world history?
- What is the formula for excluding third-party force?
- What should be done to ensure Armenia’s independent, lasting statehood?
- Have there been precedents for coexistence in cases of such hostility and hatred in the last 50-60 years?
- What roles do the US and Russia play in normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations?
- What does Azerbaijan want now?
Nzhdeh Hovsepyan
“If we decide that we must fight, meaning if we go down the path of confrontation with Azerbaijan and Turkey, then we need to take the entire state, change it from its Rubik’s cube state and put it on military rails.”
“We have fetishized the Artsakh issue; instead, we should look from a regional perspective, from the viewpoint of clear actors – Turkey, Iran, Russia, United States, EU, and why not China as well. We just need to look through their eyes and understand that it’s just a concept, a problem. In the world, every problem is used for major powers’ regional and geopolitical interests.”
Gor Madoyan
“We look at the state not as a continuously changing, adaptive structure that needs to adapt first to its society’s demands, and then to international and regional situations – trying to reconcile them to avoid facing a broken trough… but rather we think about a once-and-for-all solved situation – ‘we’ve fixed the status quo, God or history has given us the truth, and we just need to live like our ancestors did.’ This is some kind of animistic logic befitting a primitive society – doing the same thing continuously, wanting to get the same results.”
