French historian: Pashinyan must curb remnant of separatist activity ASAP

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan must find the best way—and should consult Baku if necessary—to curb the remnant of separatist activity as soon as possible, Maxime Gauin, ADA University professor, French historian, political scientist, told Report.

He was commenting on the opinion expressed by the former leader of the Karabakh separatists, Samvel Shahramyan, during an interview with the French Le Figaro, regarding their continued activities in Yerevan.

Gauin especially drew attention to the fact that the publication is an opposition media.

The French historian said that Nikol Pashinyan is playing a very complicated game:

"He recognized the territorial integrity of your country in a written form, twice, the second time in specifying the number of square kilometres, a superficies which includes both the whole Karabakh and the eight occupied villages. Meanwhile, he is working to diminish the leverage of Russia on Armenia," Gauin said.

"In these conditions, Nikol Pashinyan must find the best way—and should consult Baku if necessary—to curb this remnant of separatist activity as soon as possible, to treat them as he treated Combat Brotherhood, one of the far rightist paramilitary group: A probe was opened for illegal possession of weapons and conspiracy; 49 persons have been arrested this month," Gauin said.

He noted that for now, the Armenian opposition is divided and pessimism is rising among their voters, but it does not fix the issue of revengeful armed elements.

"In September of last year, Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, called for the assassination of Pashinyan on his Facebook account (which is public). Indeed, the Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that 3,500 weapon have been confiscated between the armistice of November 2020 and January 2024, but they are looking for 17,000 other firearms. We can think about a historical example: Charles de Gaulle went back to power in 1958 with the aim to keep Algeria, then he announced self-determination in 1959 and the country became independent in 1962. Hardliners tried to kill him in reprisals. The first attempt of this kind took place in September 1961, the last one in August 1964; the very last group planning an assassination was arrested in May 1965. Yet, since the independence of 1962, the vast French far right was even more depressed and divided than the Armenian opposition today. So, you do not need to have a big popular support to try terrorism, by pure spirit of revenge.
This is the main problem to fear and to anticipate," he said.