In his day, George C. Parker – an enterprising early 20th century New York City con man – taught the gullible some pretty painful lessons.
Parker was famous for repeatedly “selling”
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The points in this article are valid, but they are one-sided. You forgot the other side of the equation. Armenians have been getting duped out of our lands for the past century, this is nothing new. And for me the real blame is with what is inside of Armenia, not outside of it. Armenia is not a serious country. The so-called “leadership” are self-serving and foreign-serving and incompetent, not nation-serving. On one side we have the minions of the west, as this article alludes to. However, the other side is actually more serious and a bigger threat which this articles refrains from mentioning: “Mother” Russia. And that Mother is the real culprit as to why Armenia is in an unrealistic position of checkered lands in the region. It wasn’t the USA that gave away Artsakh, Nakhichevan and Kars and Ardahan to Pan-Turkists. It was “Armenia’s best friend and ally”. The Russia minions that come here making excuses for “Mother” Russia claim that it wasn’t “Russians” responsible for that, but “Judeo-Bolsheviks”. If true, that actually makes it worse for Russia, not better, as today’s “Russian” Russia has absolutely no interest in correcting these past crimes against the Armenian nation.
In the 2016 war which Russia was definitely aware of, not only did Russia not side with Armenia as a so-called “ally”, but by barking the rhetoric of “both sides need to stop” as Azerbaijan launched an invasion means that Russia was actually on the side of Armenia’s enemy. A real ally would have campaigned that such an illegal violation of the ceasefire would cost the aggressor party in the negotiations process. Instead Russia doubled down by sending its chief Apparatchik to bark further by hinting at handing over territories to Azerbaijan. And who’s in power has nothing to do with it, the 2016 war was at a time when the Armenian government was very-pro Russia. Ultimately, the “leadership” of 2016 showed its incompetence and lack of fortitude of how to properly react to a terrorist nation which killed 100 of its innocent people and took some territories. There is no Armenian leader, past or present, who has ever had the guts to properly address Azerbaijan either by press of on the battlefield. That’s why these incompetent weaklings are not taken seriously by anyone, including Armenians.
So true. Unfortunately.
Azerbaijan=The Spoilt child of the United States
Turkey=The Spoilt child of NATO
Nope.
Azerbaijan=The Spoilt child of Russia.
Turkey=The Spoilt child of NATO *and* Russia.
And BTW, Armenia=The Step child of Russia.
The Step Child which keeps on giving in order to “exist”, and in constant hope that Mother (of Pan-Turkism) Russia can only utter just one little tiny bit of “approval”, which is all they need in order to keep the obedient subservience going with getting noting in return. And if Mother (of Pan-Turkism) Russia happens to throw Armenia a bone as a bonus on a good day, all the better! And please, let us ignore that “table of plenty” which Turkey, Azerbaijan and Mother (of Pan-Turkism) Russia are seated at enjoying their steak… for 100 years and counting.
I am grateful to Mr. Hamparian for supporting his criticism of the deal by reference to broader principles, namely because the deal offends self-determination and is internally contradictory. As I understand it, his criticism is that the deal pretends to respect self-determination but will inevitably lead to a situation where self-determination can easily be eliminated by Azerbaijan. These are the types of criticisms that neutral observers can understand.
I’ve attended numerous Armenian events on Capitol Hill and elsewhere concerning Artsakh, and I can’t help but be disappointed at how parochial they are. Politicians give speeches whose message boils down to, “Outcome [x] is a good outcome because it is good for Armenians,” or “We oppose policy [y] because policy [y] is not good for Armenians.” Substitute “Sri Lankans,” “Botswanans,” “Pakistanis,” or anyone else for “Armenians” and we would roll our eyes. We would say it is “ethnic lobbying” or “identity politics.” Well, that is exactly how non-Armenian observers react when they hear speeches like that. In my view, ANCA’s lobbying message should discuss why something is good for Armenians, but it shouldn’t end there. It should also try to connect the preferred outcome to broader, universal principles.
Would like to echo what Bob is saying but point out that this approach can be extended to most Armenian issues.
But the main reason I’m commenting is that after reading this article I wanted to do more reading about Artsakh since I don’t know much about it. I started at the Wikipedia page for Artsakh. This page seems mainly written by someone for whom English is a second language. It;s hard to understand what the writer is saying sometimes. It makes for laborious reading too. If we want folks to better understand Artsakh it warrants fixing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Artsakh
I’d like to challenge someone with a good grasp of Artsakh history and good editing skills to go to the page and edit.
The excellent op-ed of Mr. Hamparian reminds me, sort of, of the “Bedouin and the Camel” tale. When the Bedouin saw desert storm heading his way, he set up his small tent and hid in it, to wait out the storm. A little while later, the camel begged the Bedouin to let in its head because it was cold outside. The Bedouin allowed the camel to stick its head into the tent. A little while later, the camel asked if it could put its neck in the tent. Eventually, inch by inch, the camel entered the tent. As a result the flimsy abode collapsed. The storm blew over them and both died. Now the Azeris, the U.S. State Department, and several European “yes men” states want us to give the Azeris some of the territories we took as a result of Azeri attack. Nexxt, of course, they will demand the rest of the territories… and then Artsakh, leaving Armenia vulnerable to the Azeris –the same people who say Armenia is West Azerbaijan. But they wouldn’t need to invade Armenia because every sensible Armenian would have fled if Artsakh is handed to the Turkbeijan. But this, of course, of no consequence to the U.S. State Department bureaucrats. The U.S. is already guilty of the Original Sin of not supporting the return of the Western Armenia villayets to Armenia. The U.S. also prevented the return of Kars and Ardahan to Armenia immediately after WWII. And now the American “deep thinkers” think they can bamboozle us–a nation which has had millennia-long experience with their ilk.