Beniamin Matevosyan: Armenia’s minerals in exchange for Trump’s post about Pashinyan

(Another drop in the bar of Armenia’s sovereignty)

Donald Trump’s post today on Truth Social, in which he expresses “full and unconditional support” for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan ahead of the upcoming June 7, 2026 elections, is an unprecedented act of interference in Armenia’s internal affairs. Yet beneath the polished veneer of flattering language about a “great friend and leader” lies a far harsher and more pragmatic reality. The post has become the final key to understanding the true outcome of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent visit to Yerevan.

What the ruling propaganda machine is trying to pass off as a diplomatic triumph and recognition of Pashinyan’s personal merit by a world leader looks, in practice, like a cynical transaction: a social media post in exchange for the country’s national wealth. An analysis of the documents signed during Rubio’s visit reveals the scale of the concessions made by the Armenian government.

What is at stake is the effective transfer to the United States of control over the republic’s natural resources, rare earth metals in particular. The language of the agreements gives the American side not merely a preferential opportunity to invest, but the power to determine the fate of mineral resources, to dictate the terms of their sale and distribution. This is a strategic asset belonging to future generations, converted into political support for the current regime on the eve of elections. In essence, Pashinyan has unilaterally decided that Armenia must serve the interests of American energy companies, something Trump states openly when he mentions the “Trump Route” from Central Asia to the United States.

This auction of sovereignty is especially striking against the backdrop of Pashinyan’s years of rhetoric. For years, he built his career on demonizing the “Property for Debt” program, instilling in the public consciousness the notion that transferring assets to Russia was turning Armenia into a “province.” The facts, however, tell a different story: the deal struck under Robert Kocharyan was one of the most effective in the country’s history. At that time, Armenia fully settled its sovereign debts to Russia, that had arisen from the managerial chaos of the 1990s, while keeping the relevant assets on its own territory. The Mars plant and the Hrazdan Thermal Power Plant remained in Armenia, continuing to operate, pay taxes, and create jobs. That was a solution to a debt problem without losing control over the future, whereas the current government is handing over precisely that future: the subsoil and the right to dispose of it.

Washington’s utilitarian approach to Armenia is now officially on the record. The American administration is interested exclusively in the communications corridors and resources needed for its global competition and energy security. Pashinyan, lacking a popular mandate for decisions of such historic consequence, has stripped the country of the ability to diversify its partnerships. Even setting aside Russia, which the current authorities are systematically pushing out of the region, Armenia could have considered offers from other global players, China among them, on market terms and more favorable conditions. Instead, the country’s mineral wealth has been surrendered to a specific political project that Trump calls the “transformation of the South Caucasus.”

The ruling propaganda machine will never acknowledge that the price of a “like” from the American president is Armenia’s transformation into a raw-material appendage and transit zone for Western corporations. Pashinyan’s personal ambitions and his fear of losing power on June 7 have caused the bar of state sovereignty to drop to a critical level. Instead of national interests, the agenda is now the “Trump Route, “in which Armenia is assigned the role of a compliant instrument. This decision, taken behind the backs of the people, plants a mine under the country’s economic independence for decades to come, sacrificing real wealth to virtual approval from across the ocean.

Think about that…