TRIPP Faces Uncertainty Amid Trump’s Policies: Insights from Semyon Baghdasarov

Semyon Bagdasarov, director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Central Asia, delivered his characteristic, passionate verdict on the TRIPP project. According to him, the project is doomed—apparently for a single reason: the involvement of Donald Trump. In Bagdasarov’s view, the U.S. president is less a politician than a cursed artifact, whose mere mention turns promising ventures into disasters and sends investors fleeing in panic.

In his trademark dramatic style, Bagdasarov often frames regional developments as crises, portraying Armenia as teetering on the edge of chaos. His vivid imagination paints scenarios of conflict wherever a new route or project appears. What most see as a trade corridor, he interprets as a pathway for destruction.

Yet there is a curious and encouraging pattern: Bagdasarov’s most dramatic predictions often turn out to be the opposite of reality. When he declares the inevitable collapse of a project, it frequently emerges stronger than before. By this logic, TRIPP may, in fact, have a solid and reinforced chance of success.