President-Elect Biden,

I’ve been giving some thought to what could be among your first foreign policy moves in office.  It needs to be quick, symbolic and impactful.  It should help America to re-earn, and dare I say reassert, America’s ability to be a leader of the free world, with the moral authority others expect of us.  We need to reassert that America will not coddle dictators, thugs, criminals and imperialists, and perhaps for once to be true to that principle, making clear that such a principle will stand, no matter the geopolitical complexity or what we call Realpolitik.  We need to be the beacon for freedom and human rights throughout the world.  And we need to do all these things while uniting Americans, helping to heal the country and bringing Democrats and Republicans together on policy and vision, restoring the soul of America both at home and abroad.

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It needs to be quick, symbolic and impactful.
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For all these reasons, I urge you to recognize Artsakh.  Yes, it must be a bold move.  I had written this letter before the devastating forced agreement of November 9, and it is ever more important today. Democracy, justice, human rights, self-determination and the international order as we know it all have since suffered an incalculably huge blow.   But with this small, resoundingly material and symbolic gesture, America would begin to restore its international standing.  It would be quick, symbolic and impactful.  America would be saying “no” to those who would deny a people’s right to self-determination, the very same basis for our great American independence story, a principle America has long stood for internationally, for example including our – and your! – stance and impact in Kosovo; and in Artsakh’s case coming with the added basis of a vote which took place under legal constitutional authority.  America would be saying “no” to the thuggery of the Erdogan and Aliyev governments’ authoritarian rule and to their clear, immediate and dangerously imperial ambitions which, make no mistake, threaten the stability of Europe.  And at the same time the US would be sending that same message to other leaders with similar tendencies, including Putin who in this instance has used America’s relative absence to jump into the vacuum and, with Erdogan, carve the world up in their image.   Since when is that kind of behavior to be allowed?  It is the OSCE Minsk Group, co-chaired by the US, France and Russia, that has the internationally recognized mandate to address this conflict – a key fact about which Canada and France have since reminded the world.  Recognition, would, by implication, be saying “no” to the carve-up, which as it stands was no less than forced capitulation by Armenia and Arstakh in the face of the overwhelming military situation and therefore imminent threat of genocidal annihilation by Turkey and Azerbajian.  Russia and Turkey have also violated Armenian’s very sovereignty with this agreement’s provisions – placing the fox in the henhouse.  You and America would be saying “no” to Genocide and ethnic cleansing, and help to prevent that from becoming the end result of this agreement, an otherwise probable outcome given the known, explicit intentions of the Erdogan and Aliyev governments.  And, at least across one small but proud American community – which I believe tends to be split between Democrats and Republicans – you would unite Armenian-Americans en masse. 

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With one quick act, you can signal America's intolerance for authoritarian imperial dictator thugs; unite Americans; and be true to the soul of America both at home and abroad…

… and you can begin to offset the immeasurable damage to justice, human rights, self-determination and the international order sustained from last week’s devastating Agreements.
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Yes, there are many larger issues and priorities you should and will address.  The pandemic, the climate crisis, our ailing economy, China, and others.  But this should also be a priority, and you can begin to have an impact even now by signaling your intent.  You have already committed to taking many of the actions Armenian-Americans have respectfully asked with respect to the war as it was being prosecuted by Turkey and Azerbajian in Nagorno-Karabagh (aka Artsakh), and those remain important.  But with this one action, recognition for Artsakh, you would send a quick, clear message to the world – and to the Americans waiting for you to unite them – that America is back, better.

#AmericaIsBackBetter
#RecognizeArtsakh

Phil Minasian, Katonah NY

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