On Friday, September 12, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his claim on Fox & Friends that he personally ended the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. In doing so, he once again misidentified Armenia as “Albania.”
Trump began by boasting of his foreign policy record, stating: “I solved as you know 7 wars, 7, I did so many, including Pakistan and India, but but big ones. Some were unsolvable. Congo and Rwanda. I solved it. It was going on for 31 years. Millions of people killed.”
He then turned to Armenia and Azerbaijan, saying: “I solve wars, that was unsolvable. Azerbaijan and Albania, it was going on for many many years, I had the Prime Ministers and Presidents in my office, they sat so far apart, one chair was their, one chair was their, and I said fellas get together come on. Both great guys. They said I’ve been fighting for 22 years, I’ve been killing his people for 22 years, he’s been in their for 22 years, the other has been there for 7 years. He said for 7 years I’ve been killing their people. I say let’s hug and make up, and anyway, we solved the problem.”
By Trump’s recounting, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev openly said he had been killing Armenians for 22 years.
Despite Trump’s repeated claims of “solving” the conflict, no final peace treaty has been signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Artsakh issue still remains unsolved, as Azerbaijan carried out the ethnic cleansing of the region’s Armenians. His remarks, however, stand out as a rare instance where Aliyev’s long record of violence against Armenians was acknowledged, even if only through Trump’s retelling.
