Last Friday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sat beside Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Washington, smiled for the cameras, and signed what was called a “peace memorandum.” U.S. President Donald Trump hailed it as a “Historic Day.” Pashinyan sold it as a triumph ahead of his 2026 re-election campaign. But beneath the political packaging, the deal was less about peace — and more about surrender.
At the heart of the agreement was the so-called Zangezur Corridor, a 43-kilometer strip of Armenian territory linking Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave through Armenia’s Syunik province. Multiple reports indicated that control of this corridor was handed to the United States, with billions in annual revenue expected to flow to Washington, not Yerevan. For Armenia, it meant giving up sovereignty over a strategically vital artery.
For Trump, it was about optics. With his foreign policy record tarnished by unresolved crises in Ukraine and Gaza, he appeared desperate for a high-profile “win” that could be marketed as peacemaking — perhaps even paving the way for a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. The actual consequences for Armenia seemed to be an afterthought.
For Pashinyan, the deal ensured personal and political survival. In exchange for American protection and the promise of short-term stability, he traded away the long-term national interests of the Armenian people. While the agreement was presented domestically as a diplomatic success, in reality, it was a calculated betrayal.
When sovereignty was bartered away for political convenience, it was not peace — it was capitulation. And no matter how grand the signing ceremony, history is unlikely to remember this as Armenia’s victory.
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