Armenian opposition distorts Washington agreement to stoke revancheist narrative

By Leyla Tarverdiyeva, Day.az

The Armenian opposition, along with those who have fallen out with Pashinyan and latched onto the revanchists, continues to scrutinise the document signed in Washington with a magnifying glass.

The latest example is Edmon Marukyan, once an ambassador-at-large and today a politician who no longer knows where to fit himself. The “special assignments” Marukyan once carried out made him a laughingstock and a meme-worthy figure. He showed excessive zeal that was neither needed nor asked for, and in the end, was removed from his post as ambassador-at-large.

Marukyan seems to think he caused a sensation by claiming that the Joint Declaration, signed by the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the presence of the U.S. president, is a bilateral rather than a trilateral document. “The king is not real!” he cries. Pardon me, but who ever said the document was trilateral? It was signed by two countries, with a third acting solely as a witness, and no one promised otherwise. If the Armenian government wants the public to think differently, it is not Nikol Pashinyan who is to blame, but people like Marukyan. Pashinyan knows there are many such individuals in Armenian society, which is why he tries to soften potential hysteria—at least for a while. And although Armenians themselves should be glad they got off lightly, there will always be someone like Marukyan tearing out what’s left of his hair while shouting, “We’ve been deceived! Trump is no guarantor!”

We are not joking when we say Armenia got off lightly. After everything it has done and must answer for, it only partially lost control over a transit corridor—not over territory, but merely over the communications that someone else will manage. That is something to celebrate, not lament. Yerevan signed on as a partner, not a humiliated party agreeing to restrictions on its rights and compensation obligations.

The former ambassador’s agitation is pointless. Pashinyan could not have done more than he already has. He could not have signed a Zangezur Corridor agreement only with the U.S., because in that case it would have been a document about a dead stretch of rail and sleepers ending at closed borders on both sides. For the corridor to actually be a corridor and bring economic benefits to Armenia, Azerbaijan’s participation is indispensable. In essence, this is an Azerbaijani project, and it always has been.

Moreover, as a former ambassador-at-large, Marukyan should know that Baku has long and firmly refused to involve third parties as participants in agreements with Yerevan. All deals will continue to be concluded solely between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The U.S. in this case acted purely as a witness (except in the case of the Zangezur Corridor). No one can be a guarantor: by being a guarantor, a third country becomes a party with corresponding authority. We have been down this road before. The 10 November 2020 trilateral statement had Russia as its guarantor. But that did not help resolve all the issues listed in the document; it only made Azerbaijan’s task of restoring its sovereign rights over all its territories more complicated.

And frankly, what kind of diplomat was Marukyan if he cannot grasp basic facts? Unlike the Kremlin, Donald Trump has never shown any desire to leap onto the barricades and become a guarantor of peace in any conflict. He acts solely as a mediator—and, it must be said, without being a career diplomat, he understands diplomacy far better than the former ambassador Marukyan.

As for the claim that a bilateral declaration with the U.S. can be signed “only after a change of power” in Armenia—statements like that are in fact the real deception of the Armenian people. Armenia already has such a document. In January, just a week before Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Biden–Blinken team hurriedly signed a strategic partnership agreement with Armenia. This was a very strange document and a very odd step for an outgoing administration. In effect, the departing team set Yerevan up. This last-minute gesture toward Armenia, a sort of belated thank-you for its support, made Yerevan invisible to the incoming administration.

Incidentally, a bilateral document between the U.S. and Armenia was indeed signed in Washington. Is Marukyan unaware of this? That charter is more than sufficient, given that Armenia already has a “strategic partnership agreement.”