Armenian Thoughts on Ukraine’s Zelensky

There seems to be a conflict within the Armenian Diaspora community regarding Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his support of the United Nations General Assembly’s Resolution 62/243 supporting Azerbaijan’s sovereignty over Karabakh (Artsakh). Zelensky supports Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity just as Azerbaijan supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. 

Zelensky may be an intelligent person but that does not absolve his ignorance regarding the Karabakh conflict. That ignorance can also be said of many politicians in the United States and other nations. I will give you a recent example. On Wednesday, September 7, 2022, I was part of a Zoom panel discussion with Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton’s staff concerning the Karabakh conflict. The panel, composed of Armenian constituents in her district, was asking her support for House Resolutions 240 and 7555 regarding issues of the Karabakh/Artsakh conflict. During the meeting, President Wilson’s map of Armenia was presented with both Karabakh and Nakhichevan as part of his plan for the future Armenian Republic. That Republic was to be a mandate under the United States. A brief history of Armenia was discussed, explaining how many Armenian kingdoms had those territories as part of Armenia and that Karabakh and Nakhichevan were always part of Armenia – that it was Stalin, as the Commissar of Nationalities  for the Soviet government, who made the provinces autonomous oblasts under Azerbaijan to placate Turkey. It was also explained that Azerbaijan was not a country until 1918 when Czarist Russia fell and the Azeris proclaimed independence. The Wexton representative was astonished to hear that President Wilson had drawn the map. Research of many historical maps of that region would also show that for centuries Karabakh and Natchekevan had been part of Armenia. It was explained that the Republic of Armenia formed in 1918 had the provinces of Kars, Karabakh and Nakhichevan as part of the Armenian Republic – that in 1920, following the Soviet takeover of the Armenian Republic, Stalin gave Kars to Turkey and the other two provinces to Azerbaijan. 

I do not think Zelensky realizes the true historical fact that de-facto, Karabakh and Nakhichevan belong to Armenia, regardless of Stalin’s manipulation. I believe that a true historical education of that region to ignorant world leaders would justify Armenia’s claim to Karabakh and Nakhichevan. Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s false distortion of claims in that region requires educating the world to the truth with factual evidence showing that regardless of the United Nations resolution, Karabakh and Nakhichevan belong to Armenia.

Ezan Bagdasarian

Ezan Bagdasarian

Ezan Bagdasarian is a retired customs and border protection supervisor and acting chief inspector. He lives in Gainesville, VA. His father was in the Armenian Legion as part of the French Foreign Legion and saw action in Palestine and Cilicia.

6 Comments

  1. Why the official Armenian government does not use these true facts? The Azeri dictator almost daily declares that these are Azeri territories that are recognized internationally. I blame the incompetent Armenian regimes for not informing and declaring the truth to the whole world, daily if necessary!

  2. Absolutely irrelevant analysis and a symbol of why we are so deep in the hole.

    If the world were built on truth and justice, the Navajos would be living on their ancestral lands in Georgia, the US and large parts of Europe would have paid African countries for the damage caused by the slave trade and colonization, and Turkey would have recognized the Armenian Genocide.

    Zelensky is concerned about the survival of Ukraine as an independent state. He is using any and all means to achieve that goal and he’s doing a brilliant job. Instead of complaining about Zelensky, we should learn from him.

    • Oh baloney.

      We hear the same: “we should learn from them” obsequious position in regards to other questionable states that *do not share the same economic, ideological or geopolitical interests” as Armenians. Why try to force a parallel?

      Sorry, I will not bootlick someone like Zelensky that cheers on Armenian erasure and colonization. Neither to cheer on the position of Western interests who give crocodile tears and fake interest for the sole purpose of neutralizing Azeri energy block in the EU market, onyl to sell-out Armenians in the future. Neither will I uncritically cheerlead CSTO or Russisa.

      No CSTO, No CIA, NO NATO, No EU. Go south, go east-but go forward, at least!!

      The future is not this bipolar world. And neither is a multipolar world taken over by homophobic hegemons running Russia or the batshit neocons of the US .

      Rather, an alliance of global south countries in mutual interests. Think of the counter-power of the G22 against the G8 for example.

      There are other options and Armenia must ally with the future , and not the crumbling hegemons trying to keep up on a leash whether they wear the smiley face of the Big brother EU/North America or the Big Baba of Russia who is inconsistent on Artsakh and trades with Turkey.

  3. Zelensky is teaching a master class course on how to completely destroy your country. Nikol is not too far behind…

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