Armenian government would do well by appointing new ambassador to  U.S. 

ArmInfo. The Armenian government would do well by appointing a new ambassador to the United States. This is the view of international expert and US specialist Suren Sargsyan.

On his Facebook page, the expert recalled that a new administration  with a new system of values, conservative views and deep Christian  faith has come to power in the United States. "Moreover, she came to  power as a result of citizens' protests against extreme  liberalization. In general, the factor of religion cannot be  unimportant for the Trump administration. Ultimately, 82% of  evangelical Protestants indicated that they prefer Trump, the same  applies to 61% of Catholics and 58% of non-evangelical Protestants.   Trump's entire inauguration was permeated with Christian themes. In  addition to the traditional formulations of "God bless America" and  "So help me, God", as well as prayers from clergymen of various  Christian churches, Trump thanked God for saving his life. In his  inauguration speech, Trump cited the following formulations: "I was  saved by God", "We will not forget our God", "One glorious nation  under God", "People of religion, faith and good will", etc., -  Sargsyan noted.

He emphasized that at meetings with his supporters, Trump promised to  strengthen not only the political role of conservative Christians,  but also their ideological influence. He promised to ban the use of  other genders, since God created only two genders: male and female.  He promised to create a federal commission to combat  anti-Christianity and give a greater role to young conservative  Christian leaders. The American leader also promised to save religion  in America. Some of these promises have already been fulfilled. "By  the way, Georgian President Zurabishvili approached this issue very  competently and prudently. At the right time (the day before the  inauguration) and in the right place (on the Republican channel Fox  News), she said that Georgia is the first Christian state in the  world, thereby laying a new ideological foundation for building  relations with the Trump administration. Well, if such messages do  not come from Armenia, others should do so," the expert stated.

Speaking about Armenia, Sargsyan noted that the country's authorities  openly supported the democrats. "I do not rule out that the RA  Ambassador to the US Lilit Makunts assured the Armenian authorities  from Washington that Kamala Harris would win the elections and that  they should count on her. This was a fatal mistake and, naturally,  there was no "plan B". The Republicans are very well aware of this  attitude towards them. Makunts has such an open attitude towards the  Republicans that she even avoids posting about it on the embassy's  Facebook page when she attends their events (even about attending one  of the official inauguration ceremonies among other ambassadors). It  is noteworthy that Makunts was appointed ambassador in 2021, and the  presidential decree sets her term of office at four years.  Ambassadors are usually not appointed for this term, the "2 + 1"  tradition is applied, and in general, the choice of the date of  recall of the ambassador is a political decision. I believe that the  Armenian Apostolic Church, in addition to our lobbying and human  rights groups, can work very effectively with the Trump  administration, especially since the US President has already made  contact with Aram I, and I am sure that it will work with Garegin II  as well. By the way, in 1994, when the ARF "Dashnaktsutyun"  activities were suspended in Armenia, the relations between the party  and the government were no less tense than they are today.

However, to the credit of our first ambassador to the USA Ruben  Shugaryan and the leadership of the Hay Dat (ANCA) office, the  parties found areas for cooperation for the benefit of the Republic  of Armenia, putting aside acute political contradictions. The current  ambassador of Armenia was unable to formulate any conditions for  cooperation with this influential structure in Washington.