US Invites Armenia to Democracy Summit; But not Azerbaijan and Turkey

By Harut Sassounian

The White House announced recently that it has invited over 100
countries to a virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’ on Dec. 9-10.

Among the invitees to the Summit are Armenia and Georgia, but not
Azerbaijan and Turkey which are dictatorships. Interestingly, the
latter two countries did not complain about their absence from the
Summit until they found out that Armenia was invited.

The White House announced that President Joe Biden has said: “the
challenge of our time is to demonstrate that democracies can deliver
by improving the lives of their own people and by addressing the
greatest problems facing the wider world.” The President “has rebuilt
our alliances with our democratic partners and allies, rallying the
world to stand up against human rights abuses, to address the climate
crisis, and to fight the global pandemic, including by donating
hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to countries around the globe.”

The White House announcement also stated that this Summit is “to be
followed in roughly a year’s time by a second, in-person Summit. The
virtual Summit, to take place on December 9 and 10, [2021], will
galvanize commitments and initiatives across three principal themes:
defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting
respect for human rights. Following a year of consultation,
coordination, and action, President Biden will then invite world
leaders to gather once more to showcase progress made against their
commitments. Both Summits will bring together heads of state, civil
society, philanthropy, and the private sector, serving as an
opportunity for world leaders to listen to one another and to their
citizens, share successes, drive international collaboration, and
speak honestly about the challenges facing democracy so as to
collectively strengthen the foundation for democratic renewal.”

After the White House made this announcement, a heated discussion
broke out as to why certain countries were invited to the Summit,
while others were not? Obviously, this Summit is intended to form a
coalition led by the United States against its rivals, China and
Russia. Do some of the invited leaders have any concerns about being
viewed as “pro-Western” and “anti-China and Russia?” This is a
particularly sensitive issue for Armenia which has strong military and
economic ties with Russia, and is in the process of establishing
closer relations with China. How will China and Russia view Armenia’s
participation in such an adversarial Summit? Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan, who has accepted the U.S. invitation, has to give serious
thought to the negative Russian reaction for his participation in such
a Summit. However, the refusal to participate would also have
consequences with the United States.

While Armenia welcomes its invitation to the Summit for Democracy,
Pashinyan has regrettably regressed from his initially-declared
democratic values by harassing or jailing protesters, muzzling the
media, and taking unilateral decisions without any input from the
public or even those in his ruling circle. For someone who came to
power by espousing democratic ideals, Pashinyan bizarrely campaigned
during the June elections while holding a hammer in his hand and
threatening to bash the heads of his political opponents.

By inviting Armenia to the Summit, the United States is probably
enticing the Armenian government to come closer to the West. A U.S.
official “involved in the planning of the summit told Reuters that
invites were sent to countries with different experiences of democracy
from all regions of the world. ‘This was not about endorsing, ‘You’re
a democracy, you are not a democracy.’ That is not the process we went
through.’ Biden administration officials say they had to ‘make
choices’ to ensure regional diversity and broad participation,”
Reuters reported.

Naturally, Azerbaijan and Turkey were not too pleased that Armenia was
invited to the Summit, while they were excluded. In an article
published by AzerNews newspaper, titled, “Democracy summit or clear
example of double standards,” Ayya Lmahamad quoted Vugar Iskandarov, a
member of Azerbaijan’s Parliament, complaining: “it is ridiculous that
countries such as Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Hungary are not invited to
the summit, where the level of democracy is much higher than that in
the majority of invited countries.” Iskandarov must be completely
blind to the grave human rights abuses and absence of democracy in the
autocratic regimes of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The Azeri news website Day.az went even further by claiming that
Armenia was invited due to the influence of Armenian-Americans in the
United States: “No need to go deep into the previous years, it is
enough to see what has been happening and continues to happen in
Washington-Armenian Diaspora relations over the past year. The
curtsies of American diplomacy towards Yerevan, the endless
anti-Azerbaijani discussions and decisions made at the insistence of
the Armenian lobby speak for themselves.”

While this Azeri website made a completely exaggerated assessment of
the power of Armenian-Americans in Washington, nevertheless, it is a
welcome compliment. Azerbaijan and Turkey may not fear Armenia, but
they seem terrified of the political clout of the Armenian lobby in
the United States!