BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
The White House announced recently that it has invited over 100 countries to a virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’ on Dec. 9 to 10.
Among the invitees to the Summit are Armenia and Georgia, but not Azerbaijan and Turkey which are dictatorships. Interestingly, the latter two countries did not complain about their absence from the Summit until they found out that Armenia was invited.
The White House announced that President Joe Biden has said: “the challenge of our time is to demonstrate that democracies can deliver by improving the lives of their own people and by addressing the greatest problems facing the wider world.” The President “has rebuilt our alliances with our democratic partners and allies, rallying the world to stand up against human rights abuses, to address the climate crisis, and to fight the global pandemic, including by donating hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to countries around the globe.”
The White House announcement also stated that this Summit is “to be followed in roughly a year’s time by a second, in-person Summit. The virtual Summit, to take place on December 9 and 10, [2021], will galvanize commitments and initiatives across three principal themes: defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights. Following a year of consultation, coordination, and action, President Biden will then invite world leaders to gather once more to showcase progress made against their commitments. Both Summits will bring together heads of state, civil society, philanthropy, and the private sector, serving as an opportunity for world leaders to listen to one another and to their citizens, share successes, drive international collaboration, and speak honestly about the challenges facing democracy so as to collectively strengthen the foundation for democratic renewal.”
After the White House made this announcement, a heated discussion broke out as to why certain countries were invited to the Summit, while others were not? Obviously, this Summit is intended to form a coalition led by the United States against its rivals, China and Russia. Do some of the invited leaders have any concerns about being viewed as “pro-Western” and “anti-China and Russia?” This is a particularly sensitive issue for Armenia which has strong military and economic ties with Russia, and is in the process of establishing closer relations with China. How will China and Russia view Armenia’s participation in such an adversarial Summit? Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has accepted the U.S. invitation, has to give serious thought to the negative Russian reaction for his participation in such a Summit. However, the refusal to participate would also have consequences with the United States.
While Armenia welcomes its invitation to the Summit for Democracy, Pashinyan has regrettably regressed from his initially-declared democratic values by harassing or jailing protesters, muzzling the media, and taking unilateral decisions without any input from the public or even those in his ruling circle. For someone who came to power by espousing democratic ideals, Pashinyan bizarrely campaigned during the June elections while holding a hammer in his hand and threatening to bash the heads of his political opponents.
By inviting Armenia to the Summit, the United States is probably enticing the Armenian government to come closer to the West. A U.S. official “involved in the planning of the summit told Reuters that invites were sent to countries with different experiences of democracy from all regions of the world. ‘This was not about endorsing, ‘You’re a democracy, you are not a democracy.’ That is not the process we went through.’ Biden administration officials say they had to ‘make choices’ to ensure regional diversity and broad participation,” Reuters reported.
Naturally, Azerbaijan and Turkey were not too pleased that Armenia was invited to the Summit, while they were excluded. In an article published by AzerNews newspaper, titled, “Democracy summit or clear example of double standards,” Ayya Lmahamad quoted Vugar Iskandarov, a member of Azerbaijan’s Parliament, complaining: “it is ridiculous that countries such as Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Hungary are not invited to the summit, where the level of democracy is much higher than that in the majority of invited countries.” Iskandarov must be completely blind to the grave human rights abuses and absence of democracy in the autocratic regimes of Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The Azeri news website Day.az went even further by claiming that Armenia was invited due to the influence of Armenian-Americans in the United States: “No need to go deep into the previous years, it is enough to see what has been happening and continues to happen in Washington-Armenian Diaspora relations over the past year. The curtsies of American diplomacy towards Yerevan, the endless anti-Azerbaijani discussions and decisions made at the insistence of the Armenian lobby speak for themselves.”
While this Azeri website made a completely exaggerated assessment of the power of Armenian-Americans in Washington, nevertheless, it is a welcome compliment. Azerbaijan and Turkey may not fear Armenia, but they seem terrified of the political clout of the Armenian lobby in the United States!
….. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has accepted the U.S. invitation, has to give serious thought to the negative Russian reaction for his participation in such a Summit. However, the refusal to participate would also have consequences with the United States….. BETTER A FRIEND NEXT DOOR THAN A BROTHER FAR AWAY.
Most Armenians in Armenia are Pro-western naturally, especially in politics and the Armenian’s way of life. This is one of the most important reasons that Armenia will become part of Western civilization eventually. No matter who Is the Armenian leader, especially a Nikole-type person who was screwed by Putin so many times in favor of Azerbaijan and Turkey since the velvet revolution.
The 44 days of the war was another example, in which Putin sold SU 30 SM fighter jets without missiles. Probably rooky inexperienced PM did not know much about the military, but Putin’s surrounded traitorous informants knew the outcome of this ugly war.
Armenian leaders need to grow a pair and conduct foreign policy independent of any other. Otherwise what does it mean to be an independent sovereign state while constantly contemplating whose side to be on? We should only be on the Armenian side and only then we will be respected instead of being trampled on.
“Armenian leaders need to grow a pair”. Either you are an Armenian idiot or you are in love with your Putin. Putin made Armenia leaderless and little Armenia is occupied by Russian forces from the north Georgian border to the southern border, with Iran, where Turkic herds run their sheep where ever they want and shoot whatever they see. Putin will never make a new leader for Armenia. Armenia is for sale and the corridor will be opened and your eyes will get wet, more about your beloved Vladimir Putin. First, Vladimir sold the Western part, and the last Vladimir looking for a better deal either with Turks, Iran, or the West. I hope the West pays more to Putin at least there will be a chance for survival with European values without Sunik.
You should read once again what I wrote carefully because your response has no relevance to what I said. I said the Armenian leaders need to stop acting like slaves to foreign leaders, including Russia’s Putin, when it comes to making foreign policy decisions. Their first and foremost loyalty must be to the Armenian people. Any decisions they make should be in Armenia’s interest. Whatever steps they take should not be dictated by foreign leaders. They are the servants of the Armenian people, and not of any foreign leader, and it was the Armenian people who voted them in and gave them the authority that they have. They should not be on the side of one foreign leader against another because that’s when the country begins to suffer because of the rivalry between them. They instead should act independently and only in the interest of Armenia. Whatever those interests are will determine their next moves. They should conduct a well-balanced foreign policy that benefits Armenia only. This means they should conduct multi-faceted foreign policy instead of putting all their proverbial eggs in one basket. In all my remarks, based on what took place, I have consistently said Russia was not a true ally of Armenia because they collaborated with our Turkish enemy against the Armenian interests. What beloved Putin are you talking about?
Turks and pseudo-Turkish Azerbaijanis are our traditional enemies and will always be so. Those two aside, Russia is acting like Armenia’s number one enemy today based on their treatment of Armenia. They are not trustworthy and collaborate with whichever side that benefits them regardless of who their allies are. I don’t consider the West as Armenia’s friend either and there are many reasons for that. The list is long but I will mention a couple of the reasons why I think the way I do:
1. Western companies are heavily invested in Azerbaijan’s oil and gas industries and therefore their interests in the region comes first and because of that they can never be objective.
2. It took the United States acting so-called as the defender of human rights over a century to officially recognize the mass killings and the genocide of the Armenian nation by its terrorist Turkish NATO ally and that only after they were completely fed up by the Turkish terrorist-in-chief Er-dog-an’s behavior and close relations with their Russian adversary.
3. Despite Turkish anti-western behavior, this terrorist country one of Armenia’s number one enemies, is still a member of the NATO alliance and considered an important ally, along with over two dozen western countries, which the United States leads.
4. The United States is the closest ally of hypocritical and morally-bankrupt Israel that to this day has not recognized the Armenian Genocide and recently helped Azerbaijan, in collaboration with Turkey, to attempt yet another genocide against the Armenians. In the past they even lobbied for their former terrorist Turkish allies, the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide, to help defeat Armenian Genocide resolutions in the United States.
5. When the Ottoman Empire was defeated at the end of WWI in 1918 by the victorious Allies and they redrew the map of the region, Armenia was to get back most of Western Armenia from terrorist Turkey. In 1920, the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson at the time, had requested the US congress for the authority to establish a mandate for Armenia which if accepted and ratified would have required the deployment of US forces to the region to protect the new boundaries of Armenia. His request was rejected by the US senate and, in my opinion, this US decision played a critical role in our recent history. Taking advantage of this situation and financed and armed by the criminal Soviets, the defeated Turks attacked and took control of all Western Armenian territories which were to be returned to Armenia and went even further until they were stopped by the Armenians at which point the Soviets moved in and took what was left of Armenia and turned it into a Soviet republic. The defeated Turkish enemy gained even more lands after the war which they had lost and at the expense of the Armenian nation because our nation was betrayed.
Once more, our leaders need to show leadership and act independently and serve the interests of the Armenian nation and not the interests of the east or the west. We need to use them to move forward and dictate our agenda in the region and not the other way around. If we are an independent state we must act independently and often times that requires wisdom and guts which I believe the current leadership lacks!
WHO GIVES A SHIT!!!!!!!! IT IS LIKE A LITTLE BOY WHO FEEL GOOD THAT ANOTHER BOY NOT INVITE TO PARTY!!!!! AT SAME TIME, OTHER BOY KEEPS KICKING THE FIRST BOY’S ASS OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!
HAROOT SASSUNYAN GET EXCITED OVER STUPID THINGS WHILE ARMEEENIA ON FIRE WITH CORRUPTION, BAD ECONOMY, LOW POPULATION, WEAK MILITARY!!!!!!!!!
Hagop, please respect ARMENIA and write her name in English rightfully.
If you hate Armeenia then stop putting your comments here, and leave Armeenia alone.
Thank You.