Political prisoner Armen Ashotyan’s open letter to the US ambassador to Armenia, Kristina Kvien, from the detention center
An open letter to the US ambassador
Dear Mrs Ambassador,
Alas, I haven’t had the honor to meet you in person yet, and my “residence” today is not suitable for inviting a high-class lady, so I have to take a few minutes of your precious time in this format, in coverage to a number of assessments you made atthe Public Television, which, even in case of your personal charm and high diplomatic skill, could not prevent raising a series of questions that expect honest, straightforward answers from the Armenian society.
Regardless of the fact that I and many other citizens,exclusively for our political activities,are subjected to illegal persecution by the RA authorities, who receive romantic ballads from you, the content of my questions will not refer to the real essence of democracy in Armenia, which you describe with enviable persistence as “the bright spot of democracy in the region.” In this sense, I will modestly allow to suggest to Your Excellency, between the occasions of praising the Pashinyan regime, to find some free time and read the 2022 announcement of your own employer, the US State Department, the report on the state of human rights in Armenia (oh, how I envy you, how many revelations await you during that reading).
My questions and ruminations will refer exclusively to the Artsakh conflict and regional developments.
Thus,
1. You rightly claim that the conflict has no military solution. In that case, why do you proceed exclusively from the situation that arose in our region in 2020, as a result of the bloody war unleashed by Azerbaijan, in flagrant violation of international law, violating the principles of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
2. The entire collective West, led by the US, insists that no peace agreement can be concluded in Ukraine, which will be forced and under the threat of force. Why has this same approach not been adopted for the Armenian-Azerbaijani case, where Azerbaijan openly imposes a humiliating and unfair capitulation on the Armenian people with the threat of force? Moreover, your country not only does rule out the embodiment of such predatory-style coercion on paper, but also makes active mediation efforts in this direction.
3. Why do you consider it as aggression in one case when the entire Western toolkit is used in the form of large-scale sanctions, while Azerbaijan’s ongoing, creeping and constant aggression against the Armenian people not only receives an adequate response, but also does not prevent economic cooperation with the aggressor country to the expansion of cooperation based on interests.
4. You express confidence that Azerbaijan can implement and ensure the “rights and security of the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh”. I have a big appeal for you. Can you find one document, just one document, report, assessment in the US diplomatic archives, pursuant to which the USA records that fundamental human rights and freedoms are guaranteed and unhindered in Azerbaijan for its own citizens?
5. Why does the US, as a global pioneer and leader of democracy, not make efforts to adequately and fully protect the “bright spot of regional democracy” from the corrupt, authoritarian, anti-democratic foreign aggressor? Can you imagine what kind of powerful impulse the USA will send to the world where it takes active steps to demonstrate that being exclusively democratic is enough to live safely and appreciated in one’s own country?
I can continue my series of questions without claiming to receive public answers from you. Finally, having exhausted all the diplomatic and eloquent tricks at your disposal, you can claim that the US approaches to the content of the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations are formed, including the assessments and approaches of Nikol Pashinyan, representing Armenia, putting all the blame for anti-Armenian developments on him as the RA prime minister on the tolerant Armenian people. But, Mrs. Ambassador, that trick won’t work either, because at every opportunity you publicly and relentlessly support Pashinyan implementing that destructive policy, as well as, turning a blind eye to the shameful developments in our country, keeping him in power in Yerevan.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, I congratulate you on the Independence Day of the USA. I do hope that the smoke of the barbecue organized on the territory of the embassy did not prevent you from seeing the whole reality.
Your country was formed as a result of the heroic efforts and unyielding struggle of people, and it is the birth of the people’s right to self-determination. The American Declaration of Independence states that everyone has the right to pursuit happiness. Yes, Artsakh Armenians also have the right to pursuit happiness. It is my friendly request and admonition not to engage in the black business of making them miserable.
Sincerely,
Armen Ashotyan
Vice President of RPA
“Nubarashen” penitentiary institution
05 July, 2023
