Sometimes seeing with one’s own eyes is not enough to grasp the truth. What the eyes witness, the ears refute. For when inner doubt grows stronger, even the truth itself is turned into falsehood.

Former Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan’s recent statement, published by Russian media, provides a revealing glimpse into why Armenia has so often failed to break free from the shackles of its past. His argument, dressed in the language of national security and sovereignty, is in reality nothing more than a recycled version of the same old narrative that has repeatedly dragged Armenia into isolation and conflict. Instead of helping his nation seize the opportunity for peace and regional reintegration, Ayvazyan’s rhetoric portrays compromise as weakness and reconciliation as surrender. This thinking does not safeguard Armenia’s future, but it undermines it.

At the core of Ayvazyan’s piece is the claim that peace cannot be built on declarations, treaties, or goodwill, because, in his view, power politics dominate the modern world. According to him, Azerbaijan and Türkiye interpret Yerevan’s peace agenda as fragility, responding with greater pressure rather than moderation. He dismisses Armenia’s pursuit of peace under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan as “strategic vulnerability.” In other words, Ayvazyan argues that Armenia can only survive by clinging to the same militarised posture and historical illusions that brought it to its knees in 2020 and again in 2023.

This line of reasoning is not only flawed but dangerous. It reflects an inability, or perhaps an unwillingness, to learn from history. Armenia’s reliance on maximalist claims, its obsession with “historical Armenia,” and its readiness to gamble on outside powers for protection all failed disastrously. The promise of great power support turned out to be hollow. The pursuit of........

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