The Last Christian Stronghold - Will the West Let It Fall?

Armenia: The First Christian Nation in Peril

Armenia, the world’s first Christian nation, is on the brink of extinction.

Throughout its long and resilient history, Armenia has stood as a bastion of Christianity surrounded by ruthless enemies. The most recent example of this took place in September 2023 when Azerbaijan launched an offensive to gain control of a 2,000-year-old Armenian enclave known as Nagorno-Karabagh or Artsakh.

The geopolitics behind this territory’s inclusion within Azerbaijan’s borders are complex, but the devastating consequences are clear: the death or forced expulsion of 120,000 people from their homeland and the relentless desecration of sacred sites from monasteries to graves.

Turkey and Azerbaijan are now threatening Armenia’s territorial integrity in Syunik—the nation’s southernmost region—in their push to seize a critical land corridor linking Anatolia to Central Asia. If they succeed, Armenia falls. There is no middle ground.

Why Should the West Care about Armenia?

Before the 16th century, Europe was known as Christendom - a unified Christian world. But the Protestant Reformation and the European Enlightenment shattered that unity. Deism and atheism spread, culminating in France’s Cult of Reason during the French Revolution - a state-sponsored atheistic religion designed to uproot Christianity from the West.

As the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion in 301 A.D., Armenia forged an unbreakable link between Christianity and Western governance. It made this bold move even while Christianity remained illegal in the Roman Empire, which only legalized the faith in 314 A.D. and declared it the state religion in 380 A.D.

Many in the West seek to obscure or even eliminate Europe’s distinctly Christian origins, severing it from its roots. The destruction of Armenia advances their agenda by wiping out a living testament to the West’s foundation in Christendom.

Europe’s Decision Point

From 1993 - when the last Russian troops left Poland - until today, one could argue that certain European politicians are pursuing what the Soviets never fully achieved: the elimination of Christianity.

In 2024, Warsaw banned the display of crosses in public buildings. To what end? Why must Poland’s democracy conform to the model of a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional United States when the vast majority of Poles are Catholic?

Democracy is meant to be majority rule with protections for minorities and individuals, yet what we see today is minority rule with no protections for majorities. Europe's shift to the right is not a rejection of democracy but an assertion of it.

America’s First Amendment Under Siege

Freedom of speech and religion—cornerstones of the First Amendment—are under increasing assault. The Biden administration created a Disinformation Governance Board to control speech under the pretext of combating "misinformation." Meanwhile, peaceful pro-life protestors face arrest for writing messages on public sidewalks, while liberal groups encounter no such restrictions.

The Founding Fathers didn’t establish a state religion, but they assumed a framework in which a benevolent God set clear moral parameters. The Declaration of Independence asserts that we are "endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights." Since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, however, a profound shift has occurred: the erosion of the philosophical foundation that underpins it. We no longer believe in God.

The U.S. government has implicitly endorsed this secular shift, unraveling a core premise of the Constitution—that our rights are divine in origin and predate the state. Instead, the prevailing ethos today is that individual rights are granted by the government, and therefore, they must serve the state's agenda.

Where Armenia Goes, the West Will Follow

There are many in the West today who are looking to revive their own countries with their own distinctive Christian faiths and cultures. There are others who care about individual rights and the rule of law. Still others care about healthy societies that do not kill off the old, mutilate the bodies of the young, or fuel drug addiction.

For all of these people and more, Armenia matters. When you kill the roots of a civilization, you end up killing the civilization. The West’s roots are in Christendom. Hence, where Armenia goes, the West will follow.

Armenia’s Challenges

Armenia faces significant economic challenges, compounded by a declining population. With a population of around 2.7 million and a GDP of just $24 billion, Armenia’s economic prospects remain limited. In comparison, Slovenia, with a population of 2.1 million and a GDP of $68 billion, offers a stark contrast. Both countries were once under communist control—Armenia by the Soviets and Slovenia by Tito—but Slovenia’s economic growth far outpaces Armenia’s.

The key difference lies in integration into the European Union, one of the largest common markets in the world, which has significantly boosted Slovenia’s economy. Armenia, lacking access to such a unified market, has not been able to harness similar economic opportunities. As a result, many Armenians seek better prospects abroad, contributing to Armenia's ongoing economic and demographic struggles. The question isn't about the intelligence of Slovenians versus Armenians; it's about access to opportunity.

Armenia’s ability to defend itself from hostile neighbors is directly related to its GDP and population. The Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan supports a referendum on EU accession, but the likelihood of Armenia joining the EU is slim to none. There is, however, a very important part of Armenia in the southernmost region of the country that is coveted by Turkey and Azerbaijan for the creation of a Pan-Turkic economic corridor that will be aligned with China’s Belt and Road. It is frequently referred to as the Zangezur Corridor.

The Zangezur Opportunity

Armenia, the U.S. and E.U. should cooperate in the development of this key region. It eventually could be the terrestrial equivalent of the Suez Canal, and it would seriously disrupt China’s objective in controlling trade and infrastructure between Asia and Europe.

If the U.S. sits back and does nothing, China will control both Zangezur - the key land corridor - plus a new port on the Black Sea in the neighboring state of Georgia. This would severely compromise Western access to rare earth minerals in Central Asia. Given President Trump’s renewed interest in the Panama Canal, the joint development of the Zangezur Corridor by the U.S., E.U. and Armenia is a no-brainer.

Armenia’s Survival is Our Moral Imperative

Vice President J.D. Vance began his remarks at the International Freedom Summit in Washington, DC by quoting Vice President John Adams who observed that politicians “may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.”

The Vice President intuitively understood that Liberty in the United States and abroad will depend upon the extent to which the West preserves the many good things that Christendom has bequeathed to it.

It is impossible to extinguish the one nation in the world that sparked the flame of Christendom in the West and, at the same time, preserve the benefits it bestowed. If we allow the foundations of that legacy to be undermined, we risk losing the very freedoms and values that made the West great. My sincere hope is that both the U.S. and E.U. awaken to this reality before it’s too late.

Christine Arakelian

Fellow at the Armenian Society of Fellows | Regional Expert