In its 35th year, “Real Armenia”: the unfinished sentences of a permanent state

In 2021, immediately after the 44-day war, Pashinyan ended his speech with the words “Long live and prosper Armenia; long live and prosper Artsakh,” in honor of the fallen. Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) was absent from this year’s closing. The omission of a single word is the clearest indication of how the state’s legitimate geography has been redrawn since 2023.