The Armenian ‘democracy’ did not force the United States to abandon its interests

When in mid-November, the State Department announced that the United States had suspended military and other aid to Azerbaijan, canceled some high-level visits, and Washington signaled to Baku that normalization of bilateral relations would not take place until progress was made in peace negotiations with Armenia, a whole media campaign was launched inside Armenia, the essence of which was that “Washington has decided on its priorities in the region, and it will support Armenian democracy as opposed to authoritarian Azerbaijan.” There were some “hotheads” who went further and stated that even in comparison with relations with Turkiye, support for “Armenian democracy” has become a priority of Washington’s policy.

Let’s leave aside the question of what democracy is in Pashinyan’s Armenia (the farce in the City Council of Alaverdi on December 5, which allowed the Civil Contract Party to seize power in this city, is the most striking example of the death of democracy in the “Pashinyan bastion of democracy”) and focus on how this event was presented in the Armenian media and what eventually happened in relations between Washington and Baku.

To make you understand what a strong impact it has on the public consciousness, let’s give some examples of a headline from the Armenian media published after November 15:

-US did not leave Armenia alone between Russia and Turkiye. Azerbaijan is under huge pressure, it will not get what it wants
-US deters Turkiye from attacking Armenia
– US is reformatting the region
– Due to Baku ‘s provocations, the West is rushing to arm Armenia
– Why does the United States support us?
– The West has 2 scenarios: to impose peace on Aliyev or at least to stop war
– Aliyev will be at the negotiating table, forced to negotiate. Azerbaijan is not a country that can compete with the US
– Did the United States threaten to launch missiles at Baku? A military attack on Armenia has been prevented: what happened?
– Azerbaijan deceives, US punishes. The West is in a hurry, Armenia has accepted the conditions and received guarantees

And what is the result?

Firstly, in early December, it became known that the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, James O’Brien, will visit Azerbaijan for talks with Ilham Aliyev. Secondly, on December 6, the same State Department stated that the US authorities did not say that they would end diplomatic engagements with Azerbaijan. This was stated by Matthew Miller during the briefing.
The Spokesperson of the State Department stated that the termination of cooperation with Baku contradicts Washington’s interests and does not contribute to peace in the region.
The United States basically stated that it did not make a choice in the region in favor of the “Armenian democratic bastion” and clearly indicated that the issue of choice as such was not even on the agenda of official Washington. No one in the United States was going to choose between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And no propaganda videos on the Armenian Internet have been able to change this balance.
From the point of view of logic and political realism, there is nothing reprehensible in the behavior of official Washington – Iran and Russia continue to be the strategic targets of the United States in our region, and it is irrational to lose a tool that helps to carry out actions against Tehran and Moscow only on the basis that this will correspond to the long-term and strategic interests of Armenia.

The United States has its own interests, official London has its own (to get Iranian oil by any means), and Moscow and Tehran have their own (it is no coincidence that the Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan recently stated that “narratives like the Zangezur corridor cannot be implemented”). And no one will abandon their interests just because Armenia is a more democratic country than Azerbaijan at the level of slogans.

Any other conversations are a manipulation of public opinion, conditioned by the personal interests of a very narrow group of people at the head of Armenia… They may get asylum abroad if Armenia falls into the abyss of new upheavals. But what will those people, who have been brainwashed by this government for 5 years, do?

Any new healthy government will have to start by improving the media field, since what is happening today in this field is nothing more than an information sabotage against an entire nation…