President Joe Biden has not invited Turkey and Azerbaijan to his upcoming Summit for Democracy, but has included Armenia on its guest list, according to a document obtained by Politico.
In its reporting Politico said some countries, such as Turkey and Hungary, have not been invited surmising that a lack of an invitation was because their leaders have been undermining their democratic systems for years.
The Armenian National Committee of America called Biden’s decision not to invite Turkey and Azerbaijan“a sharp but unsurprising rebuke to Azerbaijan’s petro-monarchy and Turkey’s neo-Ottoman dictatorship.”
On December 9-10, 2021, Biden will host the first of two Summits for Democracy, which will bring together leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today through collective action.
For the United States, the summit will offer an opportunity to listen, learn, and engage with a diverse range of actors whose support and commitment is critical for global democratic renewal. It will also showcase one of democracy’s unique strengths: the ability to acknowledge its weaknesses and imperfections and confront them openly and transparently, so that we may, as the United States Constitution puts it, “form a more perfect union.”