Never before in the history of the relationship between modern Armenian governments and the ancient Armenian people has a sitting government done so much to bring its standing people to their knees.
Today’s meeting at the White House between America’s Trump, Armenia’s Pashinyan and Azerbaijan’s Aliyev amounts to nothing more than an optical illusion of epically catastrophic proportions.
The problem is that this one-sided “peace deal” rewards Azerbaijan’s aggression, foretells Armenia’s loss of sovereignty, denies justice to Artsakh, and reinforces the enemy’s effective use of Armenian hostages in negotiations. To add insult to injury, many people, Armenians and non-Armenians alike, have taken the bait.
Real and lasting peace must be based on and rooted in justice for all, including accountability for the aggressors’ transgressions. Not in tacit support of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Not in stripping a people of its fundamental right to self-determination. Not in whitewashing the aggressors’ violations of human rights. Not in allowing the continued imprisonment of Armenian hostages illegally held captive in Baku. And not at the expense of a people’s hard-earned freedoms, liberties, and its future.
Today’s Joint Declaration fails on its face to guarantee the safe and dignified return of over 150,000 displaced Armenians to their homes in Artsakh. It did, though, accomplish the unthinkable by legitimizing Azerbaijan’s Armenian genocide, the theft of Artsakh, and Baku’s military occupation of sovereign Armenian territory. It omitted any provision for the immediate release of Armenian POWs and hostages illegally held by Azerbaijan while removing the OSCE Minsk Group framework without replacing it with enforceable protections for Armenian rights and security. It compromised Armenia’s sovereignty through the so-called “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP)” granting long-term US development rights over a strategic transit corridor through Armenia’s Syunik province–essentially a rebranded “Zangezur Corridor.”
Mr. Pashinyan,
In the name of the Armenian people, you have no right to barter away our sacrifice-laden past, our resourceful and productive present, and, most significantly and distressingly, our children’s futures.
Your silence during today’s question & answer session, when asked by a journalist about Armenians’ right to return to Nagorno Karabagh, left a void of colossally embarrassing proportions. You just sat there dumbfounded and said nothing! There you were, on the world’s biggest stage, and all the might that you were able to muster left you clamming up and shutting down.
Unfortunately, the one thing you have succeeded so marvelously at is being a J-Lo-loving, Artsakh-resenting, Western Armenia-denying, Armenian history-marginalizing, democracy-destroying and freedom of speech-stifling Prime Minister of Armenia. Today proved once again that you are not an expert at conducting foreign policy, or worse, you are complicit with your neighbors to the east and west and their Pan-Turkic, expansionist agenda. A plan that begins with the corridor through Armenian territory–a term that Trump used several times today even though you had sworn several times before today that there would never be a corridor through Armenia–followed by the opening of the border with Turkey, then the inevitability of Turkey’s hegemony over Armenia’s economy, and ending tragically—and fatally–with the foreign occupation of Armenia.
Although today’s non-binding Joint Declaration formalizes the agenda and tone you have set, it also “acknowledged the need to continue further actions to achieve the signing and ultimate ratification of the Agreement, and emphasized the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace” between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Mr. Trump,
This allows for you to still address the issues of utmost importance to the Armenian people, especially those here in the United States who value justice and the right of a dignified and safe return for displaced Armenians from Artsakh, the illegally imprisoned Armenians still held captive in Baku, and accountability for the perpetrators of human rights violations instead of gold medals.
Fellow Armenians,
Now more than ever, we must stand strong, remain united in our common cause rooted in justice and vigilant in our actions to further the Armenian Cause. This tremendous setback must not distract our focus and will to fight the good fight for our people in the homeland and everywhere, and for our future.
It is our obligation to continue to promote real peace with true justice. It is our responsibility to positively influence and impress upon the Trump Administration the importance of this concept not only for Armenia but for the region, and most importantly for U.S. interests based on American values. It is our duty to ensure that the Armenia’s government realizes its destructive policies, course-corrects, or is replaced.
We call on our community to actively engage with the governments of Armenia and the United States, and to follow the ANCA for directive and action items to this end.
