This article tries to contextualize Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s ‘Aragats/Ararat’ turnabout with the current situation in the South Caucasus region, with the aim of gauging the relationship between value-guided politics and realpolitik. As of March 2025, this situation is marked by the prospect of an imminent peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The discussion in this article illustrates some of the dangers that menace both N. Pashinyan’s turnabout and the peace process, choosing as an example the cooperation between some Swiss MPs and former Armenian separatists. It argues that deeply rooted romantic ideas about the Armenian past and identity might resurge in combination with ideas about Christian “fraternity”, which are politically instrumentalized, and other political interests in Europe. In discussing these issues, the contribution tries to make a general point about the relationship between values and principles on the one side, and realpolitik on the other, at the beginning of the 21st century. The text concludes that, while values seem to have failed as a guiding force in South Caucasus politics, the lingering presence of values as a force that shapes the political landscape of societies remains an important political determinant.