Category: Authors

I came across a Turkish-American website, “tenthousandturks.org,” which is described as: “Ten Thousand Turks Campaign.”

The website includes the combined information of five separate Turkish-American political action committees (PACs): 1) Turkish Coalition USA Political Action Committee (TC-USA PAC); 2) Turkish Coalition California Political Action Committee (TC-CAL PAC); 3) National Coalition of Turkish American Lawyers Political Action Committee, (NC-TAL PAC); 4) National Coalition of Turkish American Women Political Action Committee (NC-TAW PAC); 5) Turkish American Political Action Committee (TURKISH PAC-TX).

The website states that the “Ten Thousand Turks Campaign,” was launched on April 29, 2010. It is “dedicated to reaching out to over 10,000 Turkish-Americans and friends of Turkey willing to take a stand to support candidates that understand the value of positive U.S.-Turkish relations.” This coalition of PACs has adopted the impossible task of fostering “positive U.S.-Turkish relations.” The leader of Turkey, Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has done a great job of undermining U.S.-Turkish relations as well as Turkey’s relations with many other countries. I suggest that instead of wasting their hard earned money, Turkish-Americans get rid of Erdogan which will immediately improve U.S.-Turkish relations.

The group’s website claims that the five Turkish PACs combined have raised a total of $2,152,849 from 2007 to 2020 for U.S. political candidates. Interestingly, the amount of contributions they have received has declined precipitously from a high of $510,765 in 2015-16 to a low of $202,640 in 2019-20. This may indicate that Turkish-Americans are not as hopeful about improving U.S.-Turkish relations by contributing to political campaigns. The website does not explain how the group was able to raise money in 2007 to 2009 before it was formed in 2010.

The Turkish website also provides the amount of money raised by each of the five PACs in the 2019-20 election cycle: TC-USA PAC ($57,500); TC-TAW PAC ($37,750); TC-CAL PAC ($44,490); TC-MIDWEST PAC ($35,800); and TURKISH PAC-TX ($27,000). Some of the groups have changed their names over the years.

Here is additional information regarding each of the five groups:

1) TC-USA PAC: This group’s fundraising declined from $231,950 in 2009-10 to $57,500 in 2019-20. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. G. Lincoln McCurdy is the Treasurer and Louette Ragusa is the Custodian of Records.

2) TC-CAL PAC: This group’s fundraising declined from t$64,400 in 2015-16 to $44,490 in 2019-20. It is headquartered in Long Beach, California. Maria Cakiraga is the Treasurer and Yelda Bartlett is the Northern California Representative.

3) NC-TAL PAC: No fundraising information is available on its own website. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. The PAC’s Officers & Executive Committee Members are: Doreen Edelman, President; Robert Levent Herguner, Treasurer; Aylin Acikalin; Zeliha Arslan; Yelda Bartlett; and Lawrence Cenk Laws.

4) NC-TAW PAC: No fundraising information is available on its website. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. Tuba Firincioglu is the Treasurer and Louette Ragusa is the Custodian of Records. Louette holds the same position with the TC-USA PAC. The website claims that there are nationwide 11 Turkish elected officials in city and local governments and none at state or federal levels.

5) Turkish PAC-TX: No fundraising information is available on its website and no executives are named. The group is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

The “tenthousandturks.org” website provides the following additional details: “In the 2019-2020 election cycle, the PACs contributed to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Congressional Black Caucus PAC (CBC PAC), and Bold PAC (Congressional Hispanic PAC).

“The PACs also contributed to three U.S. senators, 61 candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, and 10 candidates for state or local races. The percentage of wins was 100% for the Senate, 98% for the House, and 50% for state and local offices. Further, the PACs were instrumental in rallying support for the 11 Turkish Americans running for public office in 2020, the largest number ever, and the three spouses of Turkish Americans for a total of 14 candidates.

“Notable successes by the PACs in the 2019-2020 election cycle were the following:

“(1) The comeback of Cong. Pete Sessions, the former Turkey Caucus Co-Chair, in winning Texas’s 17th congressional district after his loss in 2018 when he represented the 32nd district;

“(2) The election of Farrah Khan, a popular friend of Turkish Americans in southern California, as the Mayor of Irvine, California;

“(3) The election of Turkish American Aycha Sawa as the City Comptroller for Milwaukee, Wisconsin;

“(4) The reelection of Turkish American Tayfun Selen as a Freeholder (County Commissioner) of the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders (County Commissioners) in New Jersey;

 “(5) The reelection of Ben Bartlett, spouse of Turkish American Yelda Bartlett, as a City Council Member in Berkeley, California; and

 “(6) The election of Leah Ersoylu, spouse of Turkish American Sarp Ersoylu, as a Trustee of the Newport Mesa United School District in Orange County, California.”

Naturally, Turkish-Americans have the right to contribute to political campaigns in the United States like any other American. The only issue is that they are using their political outreach to spread lies about the Armenian Genocide. Their political fundraising website is full of disinformation about the Genocide committed by Ottoman Turkey against Armenians. This is something Armenian-Americans need to counter with their own “One Million Armenians Campaign.”

Here we go again. Back in 2009, Pres. Serzh Sargsyan engaged in a misguided effort to sign an agreement with Turkey ostensibly to open the mutual border. Even though Armenians around the world strongly objected to the scheme, Pres. Sargsyan kept insisting that he was right and everyone else was wrong.

Sargsyan could not see that Turkey had no intention to open the border. Ankara used the border issue as a ploy to obtain maximum concessions from Armenia, such as giving up on the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, accepting the territorial integrity of Turkey, which meant that Armenians were to abandon their demands for Western Armenia, and returning Artsakh to Azerbaijan. These were the Turkish preconditions. Furthermore, even if Armenia accepted these inadmissible conditions, Turkey would escalate its demands, adding new ones.

Pres. Sargsyan did not understand that if Turkey really wanted to open the border, it could have done so without signing any protocols and without making any demands from Armenia. After all, Turkey was the one that unilaterally closed the border, not Armenia, so it could have reopened the border anytime it wanted. When Pres. Sargsyan toured several Diaspora communities in 2009, supposedly to find out their views on the border issue, he faced massive protests and confrontations in Lebanon, France, the United States and Russia.

Finally, Azerbaijan succeeded in killing the Armenia-Turkey Protocols by pressuring Turkey not to ratify them, in order to exert maximum pressure on Armenia to return Artsakh. Ironically, Azerbaijan was the one that ended up safeguarding Armenia’s interests, not Pres. Sargsyan.

Now, in 2021, we see the repetition of the 2009 scenario, except this time, the situation is much worse, since Armenia is led by a defeated leader who has no choice but to accept Turkey/Azerbaijan’s escalating demands for concessions. All those who believe that Armenia and Turkey cannot remain eternal enemies and see nothing wrong with talking with “our opponents,” are forgetting one key point: Who is doing the negotiating? On the one side, we have a shrewd politician — Pres. Erdogan of Turkey, and on the other side, we have the inexperienced and defeated leader of Armenia! This is like asking the sheep to negotiate with the wolf. The outcome is obvious.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said that “Turkey is willing to work for the normalization of relations with Armenia pending the neighboring country’s abandonment of single-sided accusations and embrace of a realistic outlook.” Amazingly, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan considered Erdogan’s statement a “positive signal” and promised to respond in kind! Turkey’s 2009 preconditions are still on the table, except that Azerbaijan recovered most of Artsakh by force. However, Turkey continues to demand that Armenia give up the pursuit of the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and accept the territorial integrity of Turkey. Since last year’s war, Azerbaijan and Turkey have added a new condition: Armenia should sign “a peace treaty” with Azerbaijan, which would mean accepting the territorial integrity of the latter, thus permanently giving up Artsakh. Furthermore, even if Pashinyan were to accept such inadmissible demands, Turkey and Azerbaijan would certainly impose new more troubling conditions. This is a red line that no Armenian leader has the right to cross! How can one negotiate with a country that almost destroyed the Armenian race in 1915, and killed thousands of young Armenian soldiers as recently as last year?

Having mostly fulfilled the first Turkish precondition — the return of Artsakh — Azerbaijan now wants to complete the job by occupying the rest, this time not by war, but by forcing Armenia to give it up voluntarily, by signing a deceptive “peace treaty.” Azerbaijan is continuing to twist the knife in Armenia’s bleeding heart by encroaching on the country’s border and illegally holding and torturing Armenian POWs, even after Pashinyan needlessly turned over to Azerbaijan maps of 200,000 land mines in the Azeri-occupied territories. The Nov. 9, 2020 agreement had no such requirement. However, it did include a demand to return the Armenian POWs. Pashinyan should insist that nothing will be negotiated until the POWs are released and the Azeri troops withdraw from inside Armenia’s border. Under these circumstances, Armenia must counter Turkey’s preconditions with its own preconditions.

Then there are those who think that opening the Armenia-Turkey border will promote trade and bring financial benefits to Armenia. Just to the contrary, cheap Turkish products will flood the Armenian market, bankrupting the local producers. Armenian manufacturers cannot compete with Turkish producers who benefit from economies of scale, based on an 85-million population market.

Let us not sell Armenia cheap by acting like Turkey will be doing us a big favor by offering to open the border. In fact, Turkey stands to gain much more than Armenia by opening the border. The Turkish city of Kars, only 30 miles from Armenia, suffered a “massive blow” to its economy after the border was closed, according to EurasiaNet.org. As a result, the population of Kars province “shrunk from 662,000 in 1990 to 285,000 in 2020.”

It is ironic that Pashinyan, who came to power opposing all of his predecessors’ actions, is blindly repeating the previous president’s failed policy on relations with Turkey. He is even using Sargsyan’s own words: “establish relations with Turkey without any preconditions.” It seems that Armenia’s leaders not only do not learn from past mistakes, but blindly repeat them. It would have been somewhat understandable if Pashinyan, as the leader of a defeated nation, confessed that he had no choice but to accept the Azeri/Turkish imposed conditions. But, that’s not what he has said. Pashinyan repeatedly has stated that these imposed conditions, such as the planned route linking Nakhichevan to Eastern Azerbaijan and opening the border with Turkey, are in Armenia’s best interests! Such measures are completely against Armenia’s national interests. They are in fact, the age-old dreams of Pan-Turkists, to connect Turkey through Armenia to Turkic Republics in the Far East.

To make matters worse, in recent days, Pashinyan has welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s announcement that Armenia should make an effort to open its border with Turkey. This is not surprising as such actions are in Russia’s interest in order to further distance Turkey from NATO and the West. It is regrettable that while Russia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan are diligently pursuing policies that are in their national interest, Armenia’s leader has no conception about his country’s national interest.

Another appropriate title would have been, “Parliamentarians fiddle while Armenia burns,” which is my version of the well-known historic phrase, “Nero fiddles while Rome burns,” referring to Emperor Nero’s inaction during a massive fire in Rome.

This is the tragic situation in Armenia. After losing a major portion of Artsakh and the lives of thousands of young Armenians in last September’s war, one would think that Armenians both in and out of Armenia would rally together to lick their wounds, strengthen the military and repulse the enemy’s further advances. Unfortunately, the exact opposite is happening. The culprit is not Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia or anyone else, but us. We are unwilling to unify even in the aftermath of a massive disaster. Before we blame anyone else, we need to hold the mirror to our faces.

Ever since Armenia’s independence, we have been boasting that Armenia has the most powerful military in the region, Azerbaijan would not dare to attack us, and if it did, we would march into Baku. Before last year’s war, Armenia’s Defense Minister David Tonoyan arrogantly proclaimed: “New War, New Territories,” meaning that if Azerbaijan attacked Artsakh, Armenia would conquer even more Azeri territories.

The former and current leaders of Armenia and Artsakh refused to make any concessions regarding the territories surrounding Artsakh, unless Azerbaijan first agreed to recognize Artsakh’s independence. Even though the rest of the world was urging Armenia’s leaders to make compromises and return at least some of the territories around Artsakh, we dismissed all such suggestions. That is the reason why no other country was willing to recognize the Republic of Artsakh. Even Armenia itself refused to do so, expecting that others would defend Artsakh’s interests ahead of us.

As a result, we squandered our unique chance to force Azerbaijan to recognize Artsakh’s independence in the 1990’s, while the enemy was defeated and weak.

Without getting into the meaningless debate of whether the former leaders or the current one was responsible for our defeat in 2020, I would say, we are all responsible for that disaster.

Since the end of the last war, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan rejected repeated suggestions that he resign and allow a new leader to take the helm of the devastated state. He insisted that he is the only one who can remedy the country’s massive problems. How could the one who was in charge when the country suffered such a defeat be able to fix anything? But, he stubbornly held on to his seat. Using the state resources at his disposal, he managed to convince slightly over half of those who participated in the election to support him and his political party. In reality, most of those who voted for Pashinyan actually voted against the former leaders. As expected, almost a year after the war, not only Armenia’s problems have not been resolved, but in many respects, they have become much worse.

While the former leaders were not well-liked during their reign, the degree of antagonism and hatred that we see today in Armenia is unprecedented. Regrettably, the current Prime Minister made matters worse by constantly issuing threats and warnings against anyone who disagreed with him. He started his rule by preaching democracy and tolerance, but quickly became a dictator, dividing the public into “blacks” and “whites, and shockingly, held up a hammer while on stage during his recent electoral campaign threatening to smash the heads of his opponents!

In such a toxic atmosphere, uniting the nation against the common enemy is impossible. It is much easier to fight against your political opponents. Neither the government nor the opposition is willing to make any compromises to solve the country’s problems and defend the homeland against further hostile incursions.

Not surprisingly, when Pashinyan came to the Parliament last week to present his government’s five-year plan, several fistfights erupted as a result of which the Chairman of the Parliament Alen Simonyan ordered the security guards to enter the chamber and forcefully drag some of the opposition members out. The Parliament looked more like a military garrison than a legislative assembly hall. Simonyan frequently violated the free speech rights of opposition members if they dared to refer to the Prime Minister in a derogatory manner. He ordered that the speakers’ microphones be turned off and the cameras broadcasting the meetings shut off. These draconian measures are unbecoming of a country’s legislature. The ugly scenes of the fistfights were aired by TV stations around the world, embarrassing all Armenians.

As a result, the government’s proposed five-year plan was hardly discussed. Instead, there were repeated attacks by the Parliamentarians both physical and verbal.

In the meantime, Azerbaijan and Turkey, emboldened by their recent victory, and seeing the deep divisions within Armenia, are encroaching on Armenia’s borders and demanding more and more concessions. Armenia’s weakened leader is unable to resist the overbearing demands of Azerbaijan, while Armenia’s military ally, Russia, is pursuing its own interests in coordination with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

In conclusion, I would like to make two points that are often debated on social media.

1) At the slightest criticism of Prime Minister Pashinyan, his supporters are quick to admonish the critics by saying that the Diaspora has no right to criticize the Armenian government. I reject such objections because Armenia is the homeland of all Armenians regardless of where they live. Criticism or praise is a sign that the individual cares deeply about his or her homeland rather than take the posture of a disinterested spectator. Why is it that we have the right to express an opinion about developments about any other country in the world, for example Afghanistan, but when it comes to Armenia, our homeland, we have no such right? It is also interesting to note that those who object to criticisms of the Armenian government by Diasporans have no objection when the latter praise Armenia. Therefore, the issue is not having the right to criticize Armenia, but not wanting to hear criticism about the Prime Minister.

2) In my opinion, constructive criticism is much more valuable than the blind support of a leader. Which is more patriotic — seeing something going wrong and keeping our mouths shut or speaking up and trying to correct it? In my opinion, taking corrective action is much more patriotic than remaining silent and allowing the error to continue.

I hope we stop “fiddling,” or in our case, feuding, and joining hands to create a strong Armenia that can withstand the incessant assaults of the barbarians at our gates.

Candidate for Governor of Virginia,A Turkish Lobbyist, Should be Defeated

The Washington Free Beacon online newspaper published on Aug. 20, 2021 an article by Chuck Ross, titled: “Turkey Paid McAuliffe’s Firm to Lobby US Against Recognition of Armenian Genocide.”

Terry McAuliffe is the Democratic Party candidate for governor of the State of Virginia. He won the Democratic Primary election on June 8, 2021 and will face Republican Party nominee Glenn Youngkin in the state’s general election in November. The polls indicate that it is a very close race. McAuliffe previously served as Virginia governor from 2014 to 2018.

Armenian-Americans should help defeat McAuliffe to send a signal that they will not tolerate anyone who lies about the Armenian Genocide and gets paid for it!

The government of Turkey paid McAuliffe’s consulting firm cofounded by him, McAuliffe, Kelly, & Raffaelli, nearly $1.3 million from 1990 to 1994 to do “a variety of lobbying and public relations services,” including hindering the U.S. Congress from acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

McAuliffe was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a longtime friend of Pres. Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary. Even though McAuliffe has said that he did not engage in day-to-day lobbying activities of his firm, his former partner Richard Spees told Politico Magazine that “he was the glue that held the place together.” According to Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) disclosures that I have reviewed, McAuliffe’s lobbying company contributed tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to dozens of House and Senate members, arranged private meetings for the Turkish Ambassador in Washington with members of Congress, and regularly met with multiple members of Congress and high-level White House officials in the course of its lobbying activities.

According to FARA disclosures, “McAuliffe’s firm received $1,287,500 from the Turkish government to arrange meetings with American policymakers for Turkey’s ambassador and diplomats. Turkey’s contract called on the firm to lobby Congress on bilateral trade and to ‘counter any efforts detrimental to the Turkish-U.S. relationship,’” which included blocking congressional efforts to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

In an article published on March 26, 2009, the Washington Post noted: “Perhaps most controversial was the company’s [McAuliffe, Kelly, & Raffaelli] representation of Turkey at a time when that government was the subject of international scrutiny for alleged human rights abuses. The firm was criticized by name in a report called ‘The Torturers’ Lobby’ published in 1992 by the Center for Public Integrity. The McAuliffe campaign [during his failed bid for Governor in 2009] said the company’s work for Turkey had to do with a longstanding dispute between Armenia and Turkey over a period of history after World War I when the Ottoman Empire killed, by some estimates, more than 1 million Armenians. Every year, Armenia [more correctly, Armenian-Americans] seeks legislation in Congress characterizing this period as the Armenian Genocide, and every year, the Turkish government opposes the legislation.”

“McAuliffe was implicated in the 1996 Democratic National Committee campaign finance scandal, in which he arranged overnight stays at the White House for Democratic Party donors. Before his first stint as governor of Virginia, McAuliffe directly lobbied the Obama administration to help his electric car company, GreenTech Automotive, gain access to a federal visa program for potential Chinese investors. The Justice Department also investigated whether McAuliffe took illegal donations from a Chinese billionaire during his 2013 gubernatorial campaign,” revealed The Washington Free Beacon.

“McAuliffe’s [current] campaign did not respond to a request for comment about his firm’s contract with Turkey or his position on the 2019 recognition of the Armenian genocide,” The Washington Free Beacon reported.

Many years have passed since McAuliffe firm’s lobbying activities on behalf of Turkey. In 2019, the House overwhelmingly, the Senate unanimously, and in 2021, Pres. Joe Biden acknowledged the Armenian Genocide. However, Armenian-Americans should never forget the names of those who sold their souls for the almighty dollar. This is a disgrace that such lobbyists should carry to their graves. Furthermore, McAuliffe has never apologized for his firm’s deceitful actions and has not asked for forgiveness. This is more of a reason why no Armenian should ever consider forgetting his despicable action. It does not matter at all what political party such denialists belong to.

This is a timely matter since Pres. Biden recently nominated former Senator Jeff Flake (Republican of Arizona) to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. As a House of Representatives member, he voted in 2005, 2007, and 2010 against the Armenian Genocide resolution in the International Relations Committee. In 2014, Flake was also one of only five US Senators to oppose the Armenian Genocide resolution in the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Flake has not apologized for the series of shameful votes he cast in the House and Senate denying the truth of the Armenian Genocide. It remains to be seen how he will explain his negative votes on the Armenian Genocide to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that will consider his nomination.

The last thing Armenian-Americans need is having a denialist U.S. Ambassador in Ankara who will reinforce the Turkish government’s lies on the Armenian Genocide. Senators should ask some tough questions to Sen. Flake, and if not satisfied with his answers, they should block his nomination.

I just became aware that the Government of Turkey banned Armenian aircraft from overflying its air space as of a year ago. This was disclosed earlier this month by Hetq.am website’s investigative reporter Vahe Sarukhanyan.

I was surprised to hear this news. How could it be that the Turkish government banned Armenian-registered planes from flying over its air space and no Armenian official has bothered to inform the public? Even more surprising, a whole year after Turkey took such a hostile action, particularly during the recent war, the Armenian government did not reciprocate by banning Turkish flights over Armenian territory.

The last Armenian plane Turkey allowed to overfly its skies was on August 29, 2020. Beginning on Sept. 9, 2020, Turkey banned all Armenian flights from its skies. Interestingly, this was shortly before the joint Azeri and Turkish attack on Artsakh. Turkey subsequently rejected Armenian overflight requests on Sept. 18 and 25, 2020 and on March 19 and 23, 2021.

Hetq’s reporter contacted Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) to inquire if Armenia and Turkey had placed restrictions on their mutual airspace during and after last year’s war. “The CAC responded that Turkey has not published any air navigation information (NOTAM) [Notice to Airmen] banning the entry of Armenian-registered aircraft into its skies.” In other words, Turkey refused Armenian overflight rights without registering any formal objection. Thus, Turkey added a ban on air travel to its land blockade of Armenia.

In response to a question from Hetq on whether “Armenia had banned the entry of Turkish national aircraft, and if not, why not, the CAC replied that it has not imposed any restrictions in accordance with Article 9 (b) of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, stating that every Member State of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) cannot discriminate against the use of its airspace.” This is somewhat incorrect. Article 9(b) states that countries can restrict the use of their air space “on condition that such restriction or prohibition shall be applicable without distinction of nationality to aircraft of all other States.” How is it legal for Turkey to ban Armenian aircrafts and not legal for Armenia to do likewise?

I have been tracking the flight paths of various planes originating from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey on the website “flightradar24.com,” which shows all flights around the world. I have made four interesting observations:

1)    No Armenian-registered plane has flown over the territory of Turkey in the last 12 months as result of the Turkish ban.

2)    Turkish Airlines, however, regularly fly over the Armenian air space on their way to Azerbaijan and beyond.

3)    Turkey does not obstruct the flights of foreign airlines that travel to or from Armenia over Turkey, probably not to trigger a retaliatory ban by the governments of these airlines.

4)    Armenia and Azerbaijan do not travel across each other’s air space even though there has been no formally-registered ban by either country.

Armenia’s Civil Aviation Committee told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that it “is not in a position to challenge the Turkish ban in international aviation bodies. The Armenian Foreign Ministry did not clarify whether it has dealt with the matter.” Regrettably, the CAC did not explain why it is not willing to challenge Turkey’s ban of Armenian overflights. This is a major failure by Armenian officials.

Despite the negligent attitude of the Armenian government regarding the protection of Armenia’s national interests, Turkish airplanes, of their own volition, avoided flying over Armenia during the Artsakh War, preferring to carry their soldiers, military equipment and the Islamic Jihadist terrorists to Azerbaijan over the skies of the Republic of Georgia.

There are many such examples of the negligence and incompetence of Armenian officials leading one to wonder if there is a functioning government in Armenia. Two successive Foreign Ministers of Armenia have resigned since last fall. They could not accept the amateurish behavior of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan who unilaterally made all decisions on foreign policy without consulting his Foreign Ministry.

More surprisingly, after Pashinyan’s reappointment as Prime Minister, he has yet to appoint a new Foreign Minister, even though he is required to form the cabinet of ministers within five days of his appointment, a deadline that has passed long ago. The Foreign Ministry’s spokesman clarified that the five-day requirement applies to the appointment of two-thirds of the ministers, not the entire cabinet. However, the spokesman failed to explain why Pashinyan has managed to appoint all the other ministers, but not the Foreign Minister. One would think that, given Armenia’s critical situation after the war, appointing a Foreign Minister would have been one of his top priorities.

Since Pashinyan has ignored the input of the previous two foreign ministers, I suggest that he simply appoint himself as Foreign Minister in addition to being Prime Minister. Furthermore, since the Prime Minister has been running the government single-handedly, he should also get rid of the remaining ministers, establishing a one-man rule. All three branches of the government — executive, legislative and judiciary — are in the hands of the Prime Minister. The President of the country has no decision-making powers. He is a nominal leader, a figurehead. The Parliament, with a majority composed of Pashinyan’s political party, is basically a rubber stamp body which simply carries out his wishes. The judiciary is also under the heavy influence of the Prime Minister. Thus, there is no separation of powers, one of the key tenets of a democratic government.