The U.S. government is more pro-Artsakh than the Prime Minister of Armenia
Just when we had lost all hope that the United States government would ever say or do anything to support Artsakh, we were pleasantly surprised to see a letter by a high-ranking State Department official who stated all the right things in defense of Artsakh.
The letter, dated September 25, 2025, was written by Paul D. Guaglianone, Senior Bureau Official of the Bureau of Legislative Affairs at the U.S. State Department. Naturally, we should not confuse words with action, but this is a great start. We need to follow up with our friends in Congress to ensure that the United States government carries out its pledges on Artsakh.
In its letter, the State Department made three important commitments:
1) “The Trump Administration is committed to encouraging both governments [Armenia and Azerbaijan] to provide for the return of ethnic Armenians to Nagorno-Karabakh in the context of a sustainable peace.
2) “We are closely monitoring the trials of detained ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan, and officials at the U.S. Embassy in Baku attend legal proceedings whenever possible.
3) “Finally, we continue to call on the Azerbaijani government to protect Armenian heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
These three sentences cover the core Armenian demands for Artsakh. The U.S. government has never made such pledges before. We hope they will be implemented and not remain mere words on a piece of paper.
We must realize that the State Department’s letter did not materialize out of thin air. It is the result of persistent lobbying by the Armenian-American community.
The congressional letter reminded the Secretary of State of the provisional order of the International Court of Justice in December 2023, compelling Azerbaijan to allow the return of Armenians to Artsakh.
How could it be that the U.S. government cares more about the rights of Artsakh Armenians than Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia? After boldly proclaiming in 2019 that “Artsakh is Armenia, period,” Pashinyan did the exact opposite by acknowledging that Artsakh belongs to Azerbaijan. To make matters worse, Pashinyan made no mention of Artsakh, the right of return of Armenians from Artsakh or those illegally detained in Azerbaijan, when addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last week. Instead, his action is to urge Artsakh Armenians to settle down in the Republic of Armenia. Pashinyan has continued the same messaging used in his August 18, 2025, address to the nation, wherein he said: “As for our compatriots displaced from Karabakh, I have publicly stated more than once that I do not consider their ideas about return to be realistic.” Pashinyan continued that the “topic of return of those who have become refugees…[is] a dangerous factor that damages the peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Pashinyan has not only abandoned the Artsakh Armenians’ right of return, but has also ignored the plight of Armenians imprisoned in Baku.
The latest indication of Pashinyan’s inaction to secure the release of the Armenian prisoners is his awkward interaction with President Donald Trump at the White House on August 8. When Trump brought up the 23 Christians held in Azerbaijan, asking if Pashinyan “want[ed] those Christians released,” Pashinyan anxiously turned to his aids and asked Trump not to include a reference to the Artsakh prisoners in the Memorandum of Understanding, most likely thinking Trump was referring to Armenian POWs, to be signed by himself, President Aliyev and President Trump. Amazingly, Trump then volunteered to help secure the prisoners’ release by telling Pashinyan, “I’ll call Aliyev. He’ll do it as a favor to me.” Trump then added: “if anything goes wrong, just call me directly. I’ll fix it.”
Two months later, Pashinyan has shown no interest in reminding Trump about his promise to call Aliyev. When an Armenian reporter recently asked him if he had Trump’s “WhatsApp number,” Pashinyan gave an evasive answer by saying, “I cannot disclose the list of my WhatsApp numbers.”
The only sour note in the State Department’s otherwise welcome letter of September 25 is its usage of the term “corridor,” a word favored by Azerbaijan, to describe the planned road linking Azerbaijan’s mainland with its exclave of Nakhichevan through Armenia. Trump also wrongly used the term “corridor” twice during the White House meeting. In addition, since August 8, Trump has mistakenly said several times that he has solved the conflict between Albania (instead of Armenia) and Azerbaijan, and has also confused Azerbaijan with Cambodia.
Regrettably, neither the letter signed by 87 Members of Congress nor the reply from the State Department mentioned the important fact that Azerbaijani troops have been occupying a portion of the territory of the Republic of Armenia since 2021 with no intention of leaving anytime soon. Pashinyan, despite his constitutional responsibility to protect Armenia’s borders, has ignored the foreign occupation of the Republic’s territory.
How can a peace treaty be signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan while the enemy is occupying Armenia’s territory?
For the USA it’s relatively easy for it to say as much as it doesn’t have Azerbaijan breathing down it’s neck in the figurative sense. For Armenia to say as much would be seen as confrontational and far more risky