US President Donald Trump called Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan a "compatriot" of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, using the word "compatible". An excerpt of the broadcast, which shows that Trump turns to the Azerbaijani leader sitting behind with this question, was published by Novosti-Armenia.
"Where is your compatriot?" — Trump told Aliyev.
The latter pointed to Pashinyan.
"Are you guys still getting along? They fought for 32 years, we settled everything in an hour. They like each other," the American leader added.
The word "compatible", which Trump used in relation to Pashinyan, Oxford and Cambridge English dictionaries translate as "compatriot". Other meanings of this word include "a friend with whom you work together" or "comrade".
Earlier, Trump had already made a reservation about the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In September, he confused Armenia with Albania, saying that he had stopped the conflict between Albania and Azerbaijan.
In August, a trilateral meeting was held in Washington with the participation of Trump and Aliyev, as well as Pashinyan. Following the talks, Baku and Yerevan confirmed its intention to restore diplomatic relations, cease hostilities and respect each other's territorial integrity.
Nagorno-Karabakh in Soviet times as an autonomous region was part of the Azerbaijan SSR, despite the predominantly Armenian population. In the late 1980s, against the backdrop of the collapse of the USSR, the Armenians of Karabakh wanted to secede, which led to the First Karabakh War (1992-1994).
The Armenian forces then took control not only of Karabakh, but also the adjacent regions of Azerbaijan. In 2020, the Second Karabakh War began, and Azerbaijan regained most of the lost territories.In 2023, as a result of the military operation, Nagorno-Karabakh came under the full control of Azerbaijan, RBC reminds.