Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday acknowledged that Turkey is assisting Azerbaijan in its attacks on Artsakh, but offered little assurance that the United States would step up, as a co-chairing country of the OSCE Minks Group. Instead, he expressed hope that Armenians would be able to defend themselves against the ongoing attacks.
“We now have the Turks, who have stepped in and provided resources to Azerbaijan, increasing the risk, increasing the firepower that’s taking place in this historic fight over this place called Nagorno-Karabakh, a small territory with about 150,000 people,” said Pompeo during his daily briefing on Thursday when asked to comment about the ongoing military aggression against Artsakh, saying “It is dangerous.”
“We’re hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing,” said Pompeo. “…and that they will all, before that takes place, get the ceasefire right, and then sit down at the table and try and sort through this – that is – what is a truly historic and complicated problem set.”
“Yeah, it’s a longstanding conflict. The resolution of that conflict ought to be done through negotiation and peaceful discussions, not through armed conflict, and certainly not with third party countries coming in to lend their firepower to what is already a powder keg of a situation,” explained Pompeo.
“Secretary of State Pompeo – who is only now starting to acknowledge the obvious truths about the brutal, ongoing onslaught against Armenian civilians by Azerbaijan and its Turkish/ISIS allies – has yet to take a single concrete step to halt this killing,” said Armenian National Committee of America Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
“Aside from passive remarks about how he’s ‘hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing,’ he has yet to publicly condemn Aliyev, cut off a single dollar of U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan, or sanction even one official in Ankara or Baku for war crimes,” added Hamparian.
During his Wednesday press briefing, Pompeo suggested that President Donald Trump was aware that Turkey was “reinforcing” Azerbaijan. Saying the State Department was following the developments in the region, he again did not offer any insight on the steps the U.S. would take to quell the fighting. He just simply called for the sides to adhere to the ceasefire agreement and negotiate a settlement.
I’m crying so hard. It’s very painful. We are alone. My Lord, we are trusting only on You.
Really, is that the best you can do Mr. Pompeo, you only hope that Armenia can defend itself, wow, what a leader.
We don’t need hollow words of sympathy from Mr. Pompeo. As a representative of United States foreign policy, Mr. Pompeo and the President should stop supporting the autocratic regimes of Erdogan
and the puppet Aliyev of Azerbaijan.
Mr. Pompeo‘s statement reminded me of what my father(a survivor of the Genocide) used to say : the Western governments stayed silent when the turks massacred the Armenians. Afterwords, they felt sorry and opened orphanages. We cannot let history repeat itself.
I wish all politicians would read the following quotation by our own Armenian American writer William Saroyan:
“ I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, Whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and play a game. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a new Armenia”.
EXCELLENT WORDS NOW MR, POMPEO PLEASE TAKE CONCRETE ACTIONS TO STOP GENOCIDAL TURKEY AND AZERBAIJAN FORCE THE WITHDRAWL OF THE TURKISH MILITARY AND SYRIAN JIHADIST NOW
MR. POMPEO PLEASE TAKE ACTION AGAINSTTHIS EVIL AGGRESSION NOW!!!!!
Gee, thank you Mr. Popmeo. I too hope that Armenia will be able to withstand an assault with American designed arms, arms which were supplied by the US, and that peace will prevail. Hey, how about our Secretary of State telling Turkey to stay out of the Caucasus? How about if we, the U.S., halted arms delivery to both Turkey and Azerbaijan? I’m glad I thought of that!
Sec. of State Pompeo:
Enough words.
Take real action to stop Turkey and Azerbaijan’s use of US weapons and/or technology against Armenians.
As for your vaunted “War on Terror,” Mr. Pompeo, I don’t see any action by you and Pres. Trump against the jihadist terrorists in Azerbaijan.
Who knows, maybe you like terrorists, yes?