Pashinian’s message on Wednesday followed a wave of international congratulations to the Republican candidate after he emerged as the winner of the November 5 vote.
“Warmest congratulations to Donald Trump on your impressive victory as the 47th President of the United States,” Pashinian wrote on X. “Mr. President-elect, I look forward to working with you to build up Armenia-U.S. strategic bilateral relations based on our shared values, priorities and interests.”
Trump declared his victory after the completion of vote counts across most U.S. states, garnering enough electoral votes to secure a second, inconsecutive term in office.
During his campaign at least on two occasions Trump voiced support for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians, blaming the current U.S. administration, including his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris for last year’s forced exodus of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population.
“Kamala Harris did NOTHING as 120,000 Armenian Christians were horrifically persecuted and forcibly displaced in Artsakh,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform on October 24, using the Armenian name for Nagorno-Karabakh. “Christians around the world will not be safe if Kamala Harris is President of the United States.”
“When I am President, I will protect persecuted Christians, I will work to stop the violence and ethnic cleansing, and we will restore PEACE between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” added Trump, who served as president during the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan denies forcing the Karabakh Armenians to flee their homes and says they can live there under Azerbaijani rule. Karabakh’s leaders and ordinary residents rejected such an option even before the Azerbaijani offensive. Some of those leaders have said that only “international guarantees” could convince the refugees to return home.
Harris also reached out to the Armenian community of the United States in a statement issued on September 23. The U.S. vice president pledged then to “continue to support Armenia” and stated that Karabakh Armenians have a legitimate right to “return safely” to their homeland recaptured by Azerbaijan in September 2023.
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), a major community organization, dismissed Harris’s statement, saying that she “did not lift a finger or even raise her voice against Azerbaijan’s 2023 aggression.”
Earlier this year, the ANCA gave the current and previous U.S. administrations an “F” rating on Armenian issues. Accordingly, the Armenian-American lobby group did not endorse either Trump or Harris.
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