Vartan Oskanian: Sovereignty without identity is hollow, and identity  without sovereignty is unsustainable

ArmInfo. When defeat, loss, and concession are presented as victory-packaged with the false promise of peace and prosperity-it demands more than casual acceptance. It should alarm those willing to look beyond the surface, beyond tomorrow's headlines, and into the deeper currents of history  imagining the future, as noted by ex- foreign minister Vartan  Oskanian in a post on his Facebook page. His message reads as  follows:  "Today Armenia is caught in the grip of two parallel  processes-one more visible and tangible, the other more insidious. On  the ground, the country has suffered staggering geopolitical blows:  the complete loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, the concession of a corridor  to Azerbaijan, the erosion of borderlands, and the looming threat of  further territorial losses. These are not isolated setbacks; taken  together, they represent the dismantling of Armenia's strategic depth  and its physical security.

At the same time, a quieter but equally dangerous campaign seeks to  erode Armenia's identity and values.  The drive to amend the  constitution, to strip Mount Ararat from the national emblem, to  weaken the Armenian Church, to rewrite history books, to brand  national aspirations as "revanchist," and even to downplay the  Genocide-these are not mere cosmetic changes. They strike at the very  foundations of Armenia's collective memory and moral defenses. A  nation does not survive by holding territory alone; it endures by  nurturing a spirit of resistance, cherishing its symbols, and  preserving the truth of its past. When these pillars are dismantled,  the people are disarmed from within.

This combination-territorial retreat and value erosion-poses an  existential threat to Armenia's long-term survival. Sovereignty  without identity is hollow; identity without sovereignty is  unsustainable. Unless this course is reversed, the future holds a  bitter paradox: Armenia may persist as a geographical expression, but  we Armenians ourselves risk becoming strangers in our own homeland.  The "non-Armenian Armenia" that emerges will be one where others  dictate borders, rewrite history, and redefine values. Nations rarely  vanish in a single stroke-they fade when leaders trade dignity for  expedience and survival for surrender.  The danger may be is not that  Armenia could disappear, but that it may endure stripped of the very  essence that makes it Armenian."