By Harut Sassounian
Image by Gagrulenet
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 Sept. 25, 2025, was written by Paul D. Guaglianone, Senior Bureau Official, Bureau of Legislative Affairs, 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 Dept.’s letter did not materialize out of thin air. It is the result of persistent lobbying by the Armenian-American community. Over the past several months, Armenian-American advocates and supporters sent more than 100,000 emails and phone calls through the Armenian National Committee of America’s (ANCA) national, regional, and local platforms, urging Members of Congress to co-sign the letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Eighty-seven Members of Congress co-signed the letter which was sent to Rubio on July 23, 2025, asking the U.S. government to support the return of forcibly-displaced Armenians to Artsakh, secure the release of illegally-held Armenian prisoners in Baku, and protect Armenian religious and cultural sites in Artsakh.
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 told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last week: “I consider the topic of the return of [Artsakh] refugees in this context to be dangerous for the peace process.” Instead, he urged Artsakh Armenians to “settle down in the Republic of Armenia.” He then added: “Armenia and Azerbaijan must leave each other alone, focus on economic cooperation, and gradually build a dialogue.”
Pashinyan has not only abandoned Artsakh Armenians’ right of return, but has also ignored the plight of Armenians imprisoned in Baku, fearing that should they be released and return to Yerevan, they could challenge his rule.
The latest indication of Pashinyan’s inaction to secure the release of the Armenian prisoners is his awkward interaction with Pres. Donald Trump at the White House on August 8. When Trump asked him if he would “want those Christians released,” Pashinyan shamefully asked Trump not to include a reference to the Artsakh prisoners in the Memorandum of Understanding to be signed by himself, Pres. Aliyev, and Pres. 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 has 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 Dept.’s otherwise welcome letter of Sept. 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 Dept. mentioned the important fact that Azeri 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, and when asked what he intends to do to liberate it, his answer has been, “nothing.”
How can a peace treaty be signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan while the enemy is occupying Armenia’s territory?
