Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, EU High Representative / Vice-President Josep Borrell, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at their April 5, 2024 meeting in Brussels (Photo: RA Prime Minister’s office)
The highly-anticipated meeting between high-ranking European and U.S. officials and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took place in Brussels last Friday. Armenians hyped up the meeting with excitement long before it was held.
Some Armenians speculated vainly that Armenia would soon join the European Union, while others went as far as predicting Armenia would become a NATO member.
While Armenians are a wonderful people, they have had a major shortcoming during their entire history, which is the lack of skill in diplomacy.
Even while Armenians suffered from invasions, occupation, massacres and even genocide, they never understood that no foreign power would ever come to their rescue. They kept hoping that some country would save them, as if anyone had an obligation to do so. If Armenians never bothered to defend their own land, why would an outsider do such a thing? How can foreigners be more concerned about Armenia’s security and well-being than Armenians themselves?
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Armenians kept on believing for thousands of years the fairy tale that someone would come to their rescue. More recently, most Armenians believed that should they find themselves in real danger, Russia would save them. Naturally, this is the continuation of a longstanding wishful thinking. Despite Armenian expectations, when Russia did not protect Artsakh in 2020 from Azerbaijan’s invasion, it was obvious that Russia had no obligation to defend Artsakh since it was not part of the Republic of Armenia. After all, the military alliance called the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was between Russia, four other ex-Soviet countries and the Republic of Armenia, not Artsakh. But when Azerbaijan occupied portions of Armenia in 2021 and 2022, many more Armenians began to wake up to the fact that the CSTO would not lift a finger to defend Armenia’s territory.
One would have thought that once Armenians finally realized this fact, they would at long last conclude that no one would defend Armenia. Regrettably, that’s not what happened. They continued their eternal search for saviors. Due to the growing antipathy toward Russia, many Armenians started believing that the West (Europe and the United States) or Iran would now come to their rescue. After a while, when they see that Europe, the U.S. and Iran are not going to save them, they may then fantasize that India and China will defend them. Thus, they will go from country to country looking for a new protector. But Armenians continue to believe that others are obligated to defend them. Every country in the world protects its own national interests, except, it seems, Armenia. If Armenia had a competent leader, he would have taken emergency steps to arm the country to the teeth to defend itself. There are those who say that Armenia would never be able to protect itself from its more powerful enemies, no matter how much it arms itself. While this is true, the solution is not to leave the borders of Armenia unprotected so anyone can walk in. Armenia’s enemies must realize that if they dare to cross its borders, they would pay a heavy price. They should know that Armenia is not a public park that they can freely go in as they please.
Turning to the Brussels meeting of last Friday, naturally joining the European Union or NATO never came up. Armenia did receive pledges for a few hundred million dollars over the next four years and a smaller amount from the United States in economic aid. Naturally, this is a good thing. Who can argue against receiving a grant, assuming that the money will be wisely spent and not go to the pockets of pro-government contractors?
Money was allocated to Armenia for economic development and various other infrastructures, such as energy. That is also good. We then heard a lot of propaganda about Armenia being a democratic state. This was simply lip service to keep Prime Minister Pashinyan happy. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken kept harping on about promoting democracy in Armenia even though the U.S. government pays no attention to such meaningless principles, except when it suits its own political and military interests. Otherwise, the United States would have imposed sanctions on Azerbaijan and Turkey long ago due to their multiple violations of the democratic rights of their own population as well as those of Artsakh Armenians.
Armenia does not need political propaganda from the West. Given the continuous attacks by Azerbaijan on Armenia, even while the Brussels conference was taking place, what Armenia needs the most right now are weapons to defend itself from its deadly enemies, Azerbaijan and Turkey. If and when we lose our homeland, it would be meaningless to have improved structures or democratic rule. With neither the East nor the West providing a security blanket for Armenia, President Ilham Aliyev is reassured that he can do as he pleases with Armenia with no one lifting a finger to protect it, except for handing a fistful of dollars and a lot of useless praise.
Author information
Harut Sassounian
Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the Armenia Artsakh Fund, a non-profit organization that has donated to Armenia and Artsakh one billion dollars of humanitarian aid, mostly medicines, since 1989 (including its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund). He has been decorated by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
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