Irates: Armenian democracy brand ‘unsalable’ in US

Below is an excerpt from the paper’s editorial

To say that the Armenian authorities were thoroughly preparing for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to the United States would probably mean saying nothing at all - given the considerably high stakes.

Starting from a specific phase of developments, the Armenian authorities – and Nikol Pashinyan himself – arrived little by little at the understanding that the relationship with the United States had been downgraded to such an extent that they could not actually sink to a lower level. After the statements made - shortly after the power transition – that there would be not foreign policy reverences, so to speak – the authorities had real expectations from the main partners for developing a more loyal attitude to the so-called velvet revolution. Yet on the other hand, Nikol Pashinyhan hoped that he would thus create a reserve time for the new authorities to move ahead with the foreign policy trends and process in the same spirit and in the same values (as was shortly before the revolution).

But it turned out soon that there wasn’t any direct beneficiary among the main geopolitical allies and partners, with both Russia and the United States – as well as the united Europe – treating the power change in a kind of cool manner. Hence, all the attempts to sell the brand of the Armenian velvet revolution are still ending in failure. The maximum indifference in this sense (probably unexpected for many people) was demonstrated by the Trump administration.

The US-Armenia relations under the new authorities reached almost a zero point in both the political and economic respect and, in a sense also – the implementation of humanitarian projects.  All the attempts to establish any serious contact with central figures of the US administrations ended in a failure, with the voyages of “new Armenia’s” central high-ranking officials culminating maximum in meetings with aides to deputies of high-ranking US administration officials.  The maximum achievement over the past months was the contacts with representatives of legislative bodies. Clearly enough, though, that parliamentary diplomacy and meetings with the executive are nonetheless different platforms, with the legislative level coming only to replenish the relationship with the administration.

Very surprising and well-directed in this context was Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan’s speech, saying that a high-level US-Armenia meeting between Pashinyan and the US administration or personally [President Donald] Trump might take place ″upon necessity″ or  ″in case of an available agenda″. With no political and economic agenda currently being in place, there isn't any necessity for arranging a meeting either.

Zohrab Mnatsakanyan's confession characterizes best the current level of the Armenia-US relations. The situation is interesting indeed. The US administration voiced directly its expectations and desired agenda months ago – in the person of John Bolton, the retired National Security Adviser. It was not just a proposal but also, more importantly, a condition (as is normally the case with superpowers) outlining the United States’ main expectations. And that, as we know, is the vision of large-scale investments.