F irst of all, let’s just state that the US official statements, as a rule, are made by one department, which is the US State Department, and at the highest level: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made statements. This underscores the fact the United States pays great attention to the hostilities and its developments against Artsakh unleashed by Azerbaijan. On the other hand, it’s should be noted that as a superpower, the expectations from Washington are much higher than just statements, however, they are quite addressed and targeted. At the same time, we shouldn’t expect too much from the international community or from this or that role-player. In this case, it’s important to neither overestimate or underestimate Secretary Pompeo’s statement. The silence of the White House is somehow understandable: country is on the eve of the presidential elections and Trump’s administration is actively involved in the pre-election campaign.  On the other hand, we cannot but state that the White House continues to be quite active in the regions, where Washington has much more emphasized and direct interests, rather than in the South Caucasus. However, it’s not excluded that in case of the development of a force major situation, there will be tougher messages and why not practical steps.

Referring to the US State Department’s assessments, it should be noted, that on October 1, 2020, US Secretary of State Pompeo referred to the hostilities in his interview to Fox News “We call for a ceasefire… External forces should be pushed back”. We think that Pompeo’s “external forces” expression’s addressee was Turkey. It should be taken into account that Turkey is not a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk group, therefore cannot be involved in political-negotiation processes over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, especially in hostilities [1].

On October 2, US Secretary of State mentioned in one his interviews: “I am aware of the publications on the transfer of Syrian fighters to Azerbaijan by Turkey. We saw Syrian fighters taken from the battlefields in Syria to Libya. That created more instability and more conflict… I think it would do the same thing in the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh as well.  So I hope that reporting proves inaccurate” [2],[3].

Later, on October 14, US Secretary of State Pompeo stated: “I’ve talked about that with President Trump… We watched the reporting of civilian deaths. We watched Turkey to reinforce Azerbaijan and we asked every international player to stay out of the region and not to continue to reinforce trouble” [4],[5].

In his interview on October 15, Pompeo again referred to the hostilities unleashed by Azerbaijan: “What’s taking place in Azerbaijan and Armenia today is dangerous. The Turks have stepped in and provided resources to Azerbaijan, increasing the risk, increasing the firepower that’s taking place in this historic fight over this place called Nagorno-Karabakh, a small territory with about 150,000 people. The resolution of this conflict ought to be done through negotiation and peaceful discussions, not through armed conflict, and certainly not with third party countries coming in to lend their firepower to what is already a powder keg of a situation. We’re hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing, and that they will all, before that takes place, get the ceasefire right, and then sit down at the table and try and sort through this – that is – what is a truly historic and complicated problem set” [6],[7].

Following the statements of the US State Department, we can state a few facts:

a/ from the very first statements, they call on the external forces not to interfere in the conflict: we think that this message’s addressee is Ankara, which is not a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk group, thus is considered an external force. Of course, under the term “external forces” we can also consider Turkey, Iran and Russia.

b/ In further statements of Secretary of State Pompeo, however, the addressee of the term “external forces” is already clearly emphasized. In an interview given on October 14, Pompeo addressed which side was involved into the region and deepens the conflict, which side powers Azerbaijan.

c/ The fact of Turkey’s involvement in the hostilities was reaffirmed in Pompeo’s interview given on October 15, emphasizing in an open text, that “Turkey provides resources” to Azerbaijan.

d/ There was an interesting message and sub context in the Secretary of State’s statement: “We’re hopeful that the Armenians will be able to defend against what the Azerbaijanis are doing”. Actually, the US Secretary of State admits that it was Azerbaijan who initiated the hostilities, Azerbaijan is the attacking side and Artsakh is defending”.

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[1] https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mike-pompeo

[2] https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pomp

[3] https://orbeli.am/hy/post/599/2020-10-05/%D4%

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8CkOdmLkNI

[5] https://en.armradio.am/2020/10/14/we-have

[6] https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo

[7] https://mediamax.am/am/news/karabakh/4025