WASHINGTON, DC – Nothing has so defined Nikol Pashinyan’s government during the past seven years than his steady stream of humiliating failures at the negotiations table. As the international community’s most prolific losers for the past five agonizing years, Nikol Pashinyan and his equally inept diplomatic corps, have bungled their way through the disastrous 2020 Artsakh War, and now clumsily meander their way through his self-styled “peace process,” oblivious to the fact that his opponents and counterparts are far more capable and infinitely savvier.
Sadly, Pashinyan has also assembled an equally inept coterie of political cronies and underlings who boast resumes replete with failures, defeats, and dishonor. Case in point; consider Lilit Kamo Makunts, until very recently, Armenia’s Ambassador to the United States. Any hopes that the Armenian Government might finally assemble a competent and effective Armenian diplomatic corps were effectively dashed in August of 2021 with the appointment of Lilit Makunts as Armenia’s representative in Washington, DC.
As many know, Ms. Makunts’s tenure was most notable for her ability to sequester herself like a hermit in Washington, DC, with an occasional venture out of her bunker to deliver uninspiring remarks at a local Armenian sponsored event or, more likely, you could find her dining at the finest eateries Washington, DC had to offer.
Ms. Makunts stumbled into Washington, DC with no diplomatic training or experience. In fact, Ms. Makunts’ academic training was in “Romance (primarily Latin) and Germanic Philology.” For a short time after graduation, she taught at various universities in Armenia before hitching her wagon to the Civil Contract movement. For those of you who are not familiar with Romance and Germanic Philology, it is the study of the Germanic and Latin language, literature and culture. So, if you would like to discuss the wit and wisdom of Bertolt Brecht or the philosophical musing of Herman Hesse, Ms. Makunts may possibly be able to entertain you with an evening of interesting anecdotes. But, if you may seek to solicit diplomatic support in the very center of all Western power, for example, for lifting the 2022—2023 blockade in Artsakh, then you need to look elsewhere.
As you can guess, the Washington DC establishment quickly recognized Ms. Makunts’ shortcomings and dismissed her as soon as she walked through the door, as she begrudgingly plied her diplomatic trade.
While all bad things–like good things–must come to an end, Ms. Makunts left her post, recently,opening the door for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to appoint a more capable replacement; perhaps one with actual diplomatic experience and the gravitas, verve and vigor to sway opinions in Washington, DC.
But, no…
Instead, enter thirty-six-year-old Narek Mkrtchyan, a Civil Contract party member and part time academic with–wait for it–no actual diplomatic training or experience. In fairness, Ambassador Mkrtchyan did serve as the chair of Civil Contract’s Foreign Affairs committee for the past two and a half years, which, given the monumental diplomatic failures of the Civil Contract led Armenian Government, is like appointing the captain of the Titanic to give maritime safety lessons.
At a time when the Republic of Armenia is faced with existential threats, the Pashinyan Government has once again selected a Civil Contract crony to lead Armenia’s diplomatic affairs in Washington, DC, the world’s most complicated and treacherous foreign policy environment.
What could go wrong?
In this case, the better question is what could possibly go right?
For example, it was almost two months ago, we watched in horror as Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan led his diplomatic corps, like lambs led to the slaughter, into the White House auctioning off Armenia’s sovereignty, Artsakh’s future, and our sacred and still unresolved Armenian Cause, in return for fatuous platitudes and empty promises of peace and prosperity.
With a resume as thin as a razor, Ambassador Mkrtchyan has taken over for Ms. Makunts, and like Ms. Makunts, is devoid of the diplomatic bona fides necessary to survive in Washington, DC.
Mkrtchyan leaves his post as Minister for Labor and Social Affairs and will be best remembered for his shameful abandonment of Artsakh’s refugees–as the architect of a policy that has disenfranchised Artsakh’s Armenians and deprived them of much-needed social assistance, gleefully ushering out tens of thousands of Armenians to abandon their ancestral lands in their search for safety and sustenance abroad.
Tragically, there is every reason to believe that Ambassador Mkrtchyan, like Lilit Makunts before him, will continue to abandon the Armenians held hostage in Baku, will ignore and belittle the people of Artsakh and their righteous claim to a free and independent state, and will surrender Armenian sovereignty by providing Armenia’s genocidal neighbors to its east and west, unfettered access to precious, and dwindling, Armenian land.
They say that even a blind squirrel finds an occasional acorn. However, if Nikol Pashinyan’s diplomatic record has done anything these past seven years, it has disproven that adage.
Make no mistake, world politics is at a tipping point and chaos, turmoil and conflict have become the rule rather than the exception. Armenia is even further along that treacherous process and currently teeters at the precipice. To be fair, while neither Narek Mkrtchyan nor Lilit Makunts are solely to blame for the problems Armenia now face, they are certainly not part of the solution. And they, and their ilk, have never been.
The Armenian Nation can no longer live in denial and assume the good will of its neighbors where there is clearly none. Contrary to the fantasy being prompted in Armenia, security is not measured by the number of wine festivals or government sponsored pop concerts in a given year. The Roman Poet Juvenal once wrote, “Give them bread and circuses and they will not revolt.” And thereafter the Roman Empire collapsed, precisely because viable states require competent leadership, not salacious distractions, and unchecked gluttony. A review of the past seven years has conclusively demonstrated that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, like the easily forgettable Makunts, and the soon to be forgotten Mkrtchyan, is incapable of leading and curing what ails the Armenian state.
Vicken Sonentz Papazian is an attorney with license to practice in the state of California and the District of Columbia.
