Armenia, a pawn in the game (according to Weekly)

Vaհe H Apelian

 

Merriam Webster dictionary lists a myriad of words as synonyms for the verb “criticize”, such as blame, condemn, denounce, fault, knock, attack, complain, whine and many, many other words.  I looked for the synonyms for the verb when I read Ara Nazarian PhD “criticizing” Nikol Pashinyan led Armenian government’s policies. I find him complaining and maybe even whining. 

He seems to have found a receptive forum in the Armenian Weekly. Today the Armenian Weekly Facebook site alerted me of the article Ara Nazarian had written I had already read. The title of the article is: “Trading places: How Armenia risks becoming a pawn in the U.S.-Russia-Turkey game”.  

The editorial board obviously has already rendered a judgment, because in promoting that article, it claimed that “Following recent Armenian capitulation to U.S. and Azeri demands. Weekly contributor Ara Nazarian explores the geopolitical game that benefits U.S., Azerbaijan and Turkish interests and leaves Armenia bereft”. But of course, that is very much so for the Weekly because the Boston based anti-Pashinyan editorial board has already ruled that the geopolitical game that is being played is “following recent Armenian capitulation to U.S. and Azeri demands.” I ask readers. What such game can be of any benefit for a capitulant? Incidentally, the anti-Pashinyan segment has for long Armenianized the word capitulant spelling it with the  letters that Mesrob Mashdots offered them after he had the heavenly vision of the Armenian letters.

Nowadays, many, if not most readers, inundated with articles and write-ups, more likely than not, make up their minds about the write-up reading the title. But let me decipher the title of Ara Nazarian’s article. 

“Trading places”- In this trilateral agreement who is trading places with whom? It simply is inconceivable, if not ridiculous to think that in this “Russia-U.S.-Turkey game”, any of these players will ever think of trading places with Armenia; or for that matter will trade places with any other. Obviously, each is playing the game to secure its interests. I doubt that Ara Nazarian PhD, who I assume is a citizen of the United States, thinks otherwise and that the U.S. is trading places with Turkey, or Russia or Armenia and has their interests in mind, and not its own. It is obvious that the interests of Armenia converged with the interests of the United States. Why would otherwise president Trump sign the August 8, 2025 deal on behalf of the U.S.?

“Pawn”. Let me continue on deciphering Ara Nazarian’s and the Weekly’s mindset in likening Armenia's position to a pawn in this geopolitical game.  In a chess game, the pawn is its smallest piece and has the smallest value. In short, it is the most expandable piece. Its moves are restricted. It can move forward one square at a time but cannot capture an opponent piece with a head-to-head encounter. It  can capture a piece diagonally, sideways. But the pawn has also the potential of becoming the strongest piece on the board, a queen, if the game is played in such a way that it secures for itself such a position. But Ara Nazarian PhD in his text and the Weekly editorial board in promoting it, have already ruled that Armenia is the pawn that will continue on remaining the smallest, the least valuable and most expandable piece of the game. Furthermore, they appear to have taken their seats as spectators and bet against Armenia in the high stakes game that is being played by the grandmasters.

“The U.S.-Russia-Turkey game“ - In chess, as in the geopolitical game, the pieces do not move by themselves. In case of the chess game, it is the players that moves the pieces. The player may be Gary Kasparov, or it can also be IBM’s Deep Blue that defeated Gary Kasparov in a historic breakthrough when for the first time a machine out-strategized the human. The trend is continuing.  The chess players may even sacrifice its most valuable piece for advantage as the American chess prodigy Bobby Fisher did. Of course, in the geo political game, it’s the interest that moves the pieces. But any piece, whether the smallest and least valued, the pawn, or the biggest and most valued, the queen is expandable, if the interest of the players of the game dictates. 

Will Diaspora, lock, stock and barrel, unconditionally support the democratically elected government of Armenia? I do.

There is a new generation in Armenia whose members were born and raised in Armenia and came of age after September 21, 1991.  They are often referred to as the independence generation. Many of their representatives have rallied around Nikol Pashinyan, who was 16 years old when Armenia declared independence. Vahagn Alexanyan, an outspoken member of the Civil Contract party, was born on August 4, 1993 in Ijevan, Armenia, 2 years, 10 month and 14 days after Armenia declared itself free, independent and democratic on September 21, 1991. 

From the Diaspora, I unconditionally support  and cast my lot with the likes of Vahagan Alexanyan in Armenia. I trust them and I wish them well for I know, they know Armenia much better than I do, or Ara Nazarian PhD or any member of the Boston based Weekly editorial board knows. 

I wish them well and I tie my Diaspora Armenian political sentimental fortunes with theirs, however they deem it to be. They have in their hearts and in their minds the best interest of Armenia, their county, my homeland I have entrusted to them.