Media Center, November 10, Yerevan: “It is not important for whom the American people vote, it is important for them to be their choice’’. Stepan Grigoryan, Chairman of Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation (ACGRC), Political Scientist, expressed this point of view during the discussion at Media Center.
Sergey Minasyan, Deputy Director of the Caucasus Institute, Political Scientist and Stepan Safaryan, Chairman of the “Center for International and Security Affairs”, Political Analyst, also participated in the discussion, entitled “The new USA President Trump: What will be the Impact for the Region?”.
“For me, it is very important that Hillary Clinton congratulated Donald Trump. The election campaign had been very heavy – mutual offenses, accusations… Anyway, it is very important for us that a state like America is stable. Hillary Clinton conceded her defeat: it means that there is trust towards the electoral system in the United States,” Stepan Grigoryan said.
He emphasized that he was confident Trump would win the elections.
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“After taking the office, he will do what he has promised. People want changes. It is the first reason why Trump was elected. The second, more important reason is that Obama has gone too far in his support for Hillary Clinton, and other countries also interfered in the electoral process of the USA. It was important for Americans to be their choice, not imposed from the outside,” Grigoryan said.
Speaking about the possible change in foreign policy during Trump’s presidency, he noted that his study revealed that many representatives of the State Department wanted to improve US relations with Russia.
“I do not think it is bad. Russia-United States relations are very tense. Let them try, if a process of understanding is launched, Armenia will definitely benefit from it, we will have the opportunity to maneuver. But Trump is an unexpected person, and it can have a positive impact on the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Different US presidential candidates promised to Armenia to recognize the Armenian Genocide and do not fulfill their promise, and Donald Trump did not speak about it at all,” Grigoryan said.
Sergey Minasyan believed that Donald Trump’s main team will be composed of some right Republicans, people who are supporters of too tough but real politics in terms of foreign policy.
“We know that the Republicans have always been tougher towards Russia and the Soviet Union, but on the other hand, their approaches came from the perspective of realpolitik: there have always been attempts to make agreement on important issues,” he said, noting that Russia’s hopes that now there will be a honeymoon, are not real.
“I even do not exclude that the new US administration will pursue a tougher policy,” he said.
He pointed out that there would be different views on various foreign policy issues. Perhaps it will be determined that, for example, the status quo should be maintained in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, there may be problems in the Middle East, etc. According to the political scientist, Trump’s victory would make US policy more predictable.
“We will deal with the more realistic policy of the USA,” Minasyan added.
Stepan Safaryan said frankly that he expected and wanted Hillary Clinton to win.
“Trump is an uncut watermelon. But he is not the only beneficiary of his victory, but the whole party, which worked in favor of his victory… In spite of some hopes in Russia that the United States and Russia will respect each other’s interests, judging by the statements, the risk in the US-Russian relations is maintained,” Safaryan said.
Lilit Arakelyan, editor/events coordinator at “Media Center”