With the consolidation of the Armenian Pan-National Movement (APNM), the country entered a decade that - as poet Paruyr Sevak would say - “gives birth to heroes and destroys them without remorse.” Reforms, the struggle for statehood, and diplomatic breakthroughs unfolded on the surface, while behind the scenes processes were taking shape that would later be described as the “dark anatomy of the ’90s.”

In political life, almost nothing happens by accident, especially when a sequence of seemingly unrelated events begins to form a single, troubling pattern. Although there is no indisputable proof that Rubinyan is a “Turkish agent,” the combination of circumstances — the location of his internship, his rapid rise through the ranks, and the persistent lack of clear answers — continues to raise suspicions that he may still maintain ties with Turkish special services.

The visit in question was not an attempt to establish dialogue, but a display of submission to Baku, an example of public funds being spent on the government’s image-making projects, an effort to discredit the opposition through the narrative that “those who disagree are traitors,” and a step toward legitimizing the persecution of Artsakh’s leaders. All of this indicates that Ilham Aliyev has effectively become involved in Nikol Pashinyan’s election campaign. The plan is straightforward: peace with Pashinyan, and conflict with the opposition, whose representatives are portrayed as enemies of Armenia with supposed revanchist aims. In short, he who pays the piper calls the tune.