Asbarez: Pompeo to Meet with Mnatsakanyan, Bayramov on Friday

October 19,  2020



Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a press briefing on Oct. 14

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to meet with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan and Jeyhun Bayramov in Washington on Friday, POLITICO reported on Monday, adding that “the visits also offer the Trump administration a chance to showcase an attempt at global leadership just days before President Donald Trump faces reelection.”

According to U.S. government documents seen by POLITICO, Bayramov will meet first with Pompeo on Friday morning., with Mnatsakanyan scheduled for a meeting “shortly afterward.”

Ideally, he said, the two countries can resume meaningful negotiations soon. Armenia’s ambassador in Washington, Armenia’s Ambassador to the U.S. Varuzhan Nersesyan, praised Pompeo for calling out Turkey over its support for Azerbaijan during the conflict, telling POLITICO that ideally Armenia and Azerbaijan can resume “meaningful negotiations.”

“We see no alternative to the peaceful resolution of this conflict based on mutual compromises,” Nersesyan told POLITICO.

“We want a substantive conversation,” Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to the U.S. Elin Suleymonov told POLITICO. He also did not rule out the possibility of “an encounter” between Mnatsakanyan and Bayramov while they are in Washington.

Trump on Sunday visited Newport Beach where hundreds of Armenian-American called on the administration for decisive action on Artsakh. At a rally in Carson City, Nevada later in the day, Trump acknowledged what he called Armenian “supporters,” saying “we’re working on something great,” presumably referring to the Karabakh war.

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS