The main outstanding issues were legal claims against alleged war crimes during the recent war between the parties, a transit corridor through southern Armenia, and a clause in the Armenian constitution stating that the country included the area known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan had captured the area during the brutal war.
In November 2023, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, James O’Brien, informed the parties that the transit corridor through Armenia
should be built with the “involvement and consent” of Yerevan [Armenia] while pointing out that the “transit corridor created some other way, by force or involvement of Iran will … be met with a strong reaction”
The U.S. made it clear that Azerbaijan would not be allowed to take the corridor, known as the Zangezur Corridor, by military force, as it had threatened to do, nor would Iran, without severe consequences.
During early 2024, Armenia, much the militarily weaker, sought to make Azerbaijani threats of military force less effective by purchases of arms from India and France. The EU sent unarmed observers toward the same end.
On July 10, 2024, Blinken announced that
based on all of the engagements that we’ve had, including in recent weeks, I believe both countries are very close to being able to reach a final agreement, one that the United States would strongly, strongly support.
With the end of the Biden Administration, the U.S. had no further direct involvement in the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process that arrived at a 17 point, March 13, 2025, preliminary peace accord. Both sides reported that the change to the Armenian constitution and finalization of the details of the Zangezur Corridor still must be accomplished before the signed preliminary accord would become a signed legally binding final accord.
The Trump Administration was busy, during the subsequent time, strong-arming nations into extortionate trade deals under threat of escalating tariffs on their exports to the U.S. Armenia and Azerbaijan's tiny economies and minuscule amount of exports to the U.S. might have discouraged it from using its time in their direction.
On the August 8th episode of the Donald Trump Reality-President Show, however, the star of the show announced that he, in his deal-making greatness, had “brokered” a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The “fact” immediately went up on his White House dot gov Donald Trump Fan Page:
Today, President Donald J. Trump hosted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at the White House, where the two leaders signed a historic joint declaration for peace after decades of bitter conflict and scores of lives lost — a landmark achievement for international diplomacy that only President Trump could deliver.
The two leaders also signed bilateral economic agreements with the U.S., unlocking the great potential of the South Caucasus region in trade, transit, energy, infrastructure, and technology, and creating new opportunities for the American people and American businesses.
“For more than 35 years, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought a bitter conflict that resulted in tremendous suffering for both nations… Many tried to find a resolution… and they were unsuccessful. With this Accord, we’ve finally succeeded in making peace,” said President Trump.
After the event, both sides reported that the change to the Armenian constitution and finalization of the details of the Zangezur Corridor still must be accomplished before the signed preliminary accord would become a legally binding final accord. The White House was not celebrating the “signing” of a peace accord but rather the “initialing” of a preliminary peace accord.
The writers of the Donald Trump Reality Show were at the top of their game in this episode. In real-reality, Donald Trump was presiding over a re-signing of the March 13th 17 point pact (in which he had played no part at all). But U.S. viewers don't follow the politics of the South Caucasus. In their history, now, the Greatest Ever Deal Maker, Donald Trump, has brokered the deal. Presumably, the Smithsonian Museum of History will be directed to celebrate the “deal” as a Trump accomplishment in its exhibits... or pay the price for disobedience.
But what made it worth the star's while to bring the two leaders to appear on the main set of the Reality-President Show for a piddling third-world peace-deal? One, that is to say, that was actually brokered by the Biden Administration and third parties?
How was it even a peace deal? What was changed from the March agreement?
If we answer those questions, the pure genius of the episode becomes clear. Armenia and Azerbaijan's final tariff rates were not announced. Only that there had been “economic agreements” as part of the “peace” deal.
If silence on the matter meant that the two countries' tariffs remained 10% — the lowest available rate — or perhaps were even quietly lowered, what had they traded in order to get such a sweet deal? It is in the character of the star, Trump, to always extort an impressive amount thus marking his territory.
There would seem to be no other answer but that he left the tariffs as they were in exchange for: 1) a 99 year lease on the potentially most lucrative piece of land either country possessed; 2) officially naming the land the “Trump Route for Peace & Prosperity”; 3) effectively post-dating the preliminary peace accord; 4) dropping the word “preliminary” for purposes of the key scene of episode; 5) removing all reference to the Biden Administration's primary role; 6) and fawningly referring to the star of the Donald Trump Reality-President Show as the Greatest Ever Peace-Deal Maker who must receive the Nobel Peace Prize if there is any justice in the world.
A tariff deal called a peace deal in order to strong-arm a Nobel Peace Prize through a reality television show campaign. A vital corridor named after the supremely narcissistic star of the show — who narcissistically states that he had nothing to do with the name change. None of the specifics of the trade deal worked out before the announcement — in favor of a compelling television scene in which the star goes supernova. Looked at from this perspective, all of this is perfectly in character for the star of the Donald Trump Reality-Television Show.
As for the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, they may have managed a narcissist in text-book fashion. Already, Iran is offering Armenia trade deals like they could never have imagined. The Trump Corridor might bring them American business worth many times their minuscule economies. Half the east-west trade going through Central Asia may soon pass through their countries. But extreme narcissists and extremist theocracies are, by nature, highly unstable partners.
Will they survive their perilous success intact? We may learn the answer on future episodes of the Donald Trump Reality Show.
Will Donald Trump receive the Nobel Peace Prize? If he does, there will be bowling trophies that command more respect.
Also from the Virtual Vanaprastha:
- Donald Trump and the Donald Trump Show starring Donald Trump. July 6, 2025. "Fate gave him a large inheritance, mediocre business prowess and the wiles to realize that his genius lay in opportunism, self-promotion and the ability to manipulate others."
- Harvard and Columbia: What Stephen Miller, Russ Vought and the Heritage Foundation Know. June 2, 2025. "beginning with the stock market crash of 1929, they discovered that not all of the Progressive activists that had supposedly been swept away had actually disappeared."
- Shelving the books in a dying democracy. March 24, 2025. "I only now begin to shelve books, in fits and starts, with the scenes I am seeing replaying over and over as I do."
- Public Health Alert: Trump Variant Corona Virus 2025. February 17, 2025. "It is now running rampant through the body politic furiously working to hollow out its institutions and shift taxation..."
- Be sure to check out the The Donald Trump Show Hyperlinked Index Page to browse the episodes to date.
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