Armenians are preparing for a "crusade" against Baku – hopes for the United States

Columnist for The Washington Post, journalist and writer David Ignatius, who is so proud of his Armenian ancestry that he never mentions his ancestral Armenian surname, called on the US president to protect Ruben Vardanyan. They say that Trump promised to protect the Christians of Armenia and can start with this guy who is currently on trial in Baku. In the eyes of Ignatius of Armenian origin, Rubik Vardanyan is a man who "supported the Armenian resistance", a "political prisoner", in a word, something between Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara.

Ignatius became famous after he was the moderator of one of the panel discussions in Davos in 2009 and did not allow the Turkish president to speak. He brazenly cut Erdogan short, announcing that it was time for the participants to have lunch, and immediately turned into a hero of the Armenian people. 

Today, the new hero of the Armenian people is trying to remind Trump of his populist pre-election statements. When he needed the votes of the Armenians, he, like other politicians before him, played the Armenian card. In order to tarnish the image of his rival, Harris accused her of inaction when "Christian Armenians were persecuted and forcibly evicted."  At the same time, he used the non-existent name "Artsakh", which caused an enthusiastic squeal among the Armenians. During the election campaign, Trump promised Armenians a lot of things. A few days before the election, I personally called the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, Aram the First, and spared no epithets to describe the virtues of the Armenian community in the United States.

A few days ago, the same Aram the First, who apparently felt that after that call he and Trump had become close, wrote a letter to the White House asking for the release of Ruben Vardanyan and other riffraff. Whether there was a response to this letter or what it was, the Armenian media did not report. In any case, the Armenians do not intend to forget about Trump's fervent assurances during the election period and are going to actively juggle them in connection with the campaign against "anti-Christian prejudices" announced by the new president. The Armenian side has always tried to give the Karabakh conflict a religious connotation in order to disguise its territorial claims to its neighbor and assemble a support group from the so-called "Christian club." And then the opportunity presented itself - Donald Trump himself, who renames the straits with a wave of his hand, is going to lead a new "crusade."

The Armenians do not mind at all if the problems between Armenia and Azerbaijan are given a religious character by the decision of the White House, and the Armenians of Karabakh are declared martyrs for their faith. All this is unlikely to happen, but hope dies last, as you know. In recent years, and especially in the field of the Second Karabakh War, the topic of the "religious essence" of the conflict has been increasingly raised by the Armenian side. Previously, Armenian leaders themselves strongly rejected such assumptions, firmly assuring that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict has no religious background. Initially, this thesis was only in reserve, since Yerevan was counting on the notorious right to self-determination to conceal the true essence of the conflict, which consisted in territorial claims against Azerbaijan. In order to receive worldwide recognition of the results of the First Karabakh War, the Armenians of Karabakh had to look in the eyes of the world community not as martyrs of faith, but as heroic fighters for freedom and democracy.

The situation began to change after the April 2016 fighting. It was then that Yerevan realized for the first time that the occupiers' affairs were bad and it was time to upgrade the ideological foundations of claims against Azerbaijan. Already in July of the same year, at a regular meeting of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy in Thessaloniki (Greece), at the suggestion of the Armenian side and its allies, a resolution was adopted with appropriate accusations against Azerbaijan. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) had to justify itself in response to a letter from the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow and admit, albeit in a roundabout way, that "the Karabakh conflict is devoid of religious grounds and is political in nature, and inciting ethnic hatred is a sin from the point of view of Christianity and Islam."

Since the beginning of the Second Karabakh War, the religious factor has become the main weapon of the occupier who realized his impotence. A hysterical campaign began in various Western media, calling for a "holy war" and "salvation of Christians." It did not help to unite the West against Azerbaijan, because most countries of the Western world think soberly and are not subject to hysteria. Only a few Armenian allies and representatives of Islamophobic parties and organizations came to the uproar, and this is not enough for a "crusade". Most importantly, the United States and Trump were silent. By the way, Armenian experts recall this today, who doubtfully accepted Donald Trump's current promises to "save Christianity" in the face of Armenians in the South Caucasus.

During the 44-day war, the American weekly Newsweek published an article entitled "Unite for the Future of Karabakh" by the heads of the three main religious denominations of Azerbaijan. Muslim leaders. The Orthodox and Jewish communities pointed out that no matter how hard others tried to give a religious connotation to the escalated confrontation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, this conflict has no religious essence, and Azerbaijan does not play the role of a "Muslim occupying country." It is noteworthy that at the same time, one of the four patriarchs of the AAC Sahag also stated that what was happening was not an interreligious confrontation, adding that "it is dangerous to turn religion into an instrument of politics and try to set religions against each other."

Very reasonable words. It is a pity that they were not heard by representatives of European Christian parties, which joined forces in putting pressure on Azerbaijan after the Second Karabakh War. With the submission of these parties, biased resolutions were adopted in the parliaments of several countries. After the 44-day war, the Armenians had no other hopes except for the "Christian brotherhood." That's why it has seized on the strange plans of the new head of the White House.

We will see how far the fight against "anti-Christian prejudices" announced by Trump will affect Armenian wishes. So far, the President of the United States is creating a new office, the United States Commission on Religious Freedom. He announced this during the summit on religious freedom in Washington. Given that the head of the White House talks a lot about the "persecution of Christians," experts believe that this will become a new pretext for interfering in the affairs of other states.

The Armenian people are counting on these trends in Donald Trump's plans and his careless promises. It is even ready to forgive him for his neutral position during the 44-day war if he keeps them.  But something, including the very neutral position, suggests that hopes will not be fulfilled.