Every newspaper and magazine reader knows that one of the fundamental rules of journalism is to provide to the reader both sides of a story. Everybody knows it except apparently Robert M. Cutler. In his Internet biography, he describes himself as “editor and journalist” although he is to journalism what Velveeta is to cheese.
Cutler teaches at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. In the past year, Cutler has published nearly a dozen Armenophobe screeds. One wonders what makes a Canadian university teacher so interested in a tiny and embattled country nearly 9,000 km. away.
The answer might very well be Israel.
Although Cutler’s article about the Armenia/Azerbaijan conflict assiduously make no mention of Israel, that country is the raison d’etre of Cutler’s hate-filled effusions.
This is how Cutler’s rationale and priorities likely stack up:
Armenia and Azerbaijan are in conflict. Azerbaijan is the undeclared ally of Israel. As a Zionist, it’s Cutler’s duty to hail the Azeri dictatorship and denounce democratic Armenia.
Once again: Armenia is friendly with Iran. Israel is hostile towards Iran. Ergo, Armenia is the enemy to Israel. Ergo, it’s kosher to attack Armenia.
The Hebrew word hesbara means advocacy: advocacy for Israel. Sayanim means assister/collaborator in Hebrew. Israel has a long-established hesbara program whereby Jews who don’t live in Israel are trained or encouraged to advocate the pro-Israeli viewpoint to non-Jews. Cutler’s anti-Armenian “think pieces” can be construed hesbara to promote Israeli interests. Polishing Azerbaijan’s image and denigrating Armenia’s is to advance Israel‘s interests. Cutler’s distortions, fabrications, evasions, omissions, and tampering with history have one goal writ large: advance Israel’s interests.
Space limitation restrict one from analyzing all of Cutler’s anti-Armenian antics of the past year. Instead, we will parse three of his pro-Azerbaijan propaganda efforts: “Armenia Looks East, Azerbaijan Looks West,” “How Armenia Could Help Russia Break Sanctions,” “The Role of Armenians in French Elections.”
- “Armenia Looks East, Azerbaijan Looks West” (Sept. 12, 2022)
- Cutler writes: “Armenia while continually claims a Western heritage due to its Christianity…”
Correction: Armenia doesn’t claim Western heritage. Armenia is 2,800 years old. It’s much older than most European states. Since Armenia is the cradle of Indo-European people, since the Armenian language is a branch of the Indo-European language tree, and since Armenia shares democratic values with Europe, Armenia has close affinity to Europe. Incidentally, note the “continually” in Cutler’s sentence.
- “Armenia has only increased its tilt toward the anti-Western grouping…Russia, Iran, and China—that seek to destroy the current post-WWII rules-based international system.”
Correction: Armenia has not tilted towards China or Iran. While maintaining unavoidable ties to Russia, Armenia has close ties to the EU and the U.S. Cutler’s assertion that Russia, China, and Iran seek to destroy the rules-based international system is ridiculous. Cutler should ask himself who inflicted aerial bombing on Serbian civilians? Who wrecked prosperous Libya? Who invented the lie that Saddam Hussein had WMDs? And who goaded Russia to attack Ukraine earlier this year? The list of “rules-based” West’s, (including Israel’s) depredations around the globe is inexhaustible.
- “Iran has continued to demonstrate militant hostility against Azerbaijan’s interests, and even its very existence…”
Correction: Cutler doesn’t provide evidence for his charge. And what’s the difference between “hostility” and “militant hostility”? If Iran threatens the very [note the ‘very’] existence of Azerbaijan, why does it maintain far greater trade with Azerbaijan (over $500 million) than with Armenia ($300 million)? Why doesn’t Cutler criticize Azerbaijan for trading with Iran?
- “How Armenia Could Help Russia Break Sanctions” (March 31, 2022)
Correction: This is a novel but clumsy leger-de-main: accusing someone before the “crime” is committed. Cutler could also crash his car into a “Save the Children” donation box because it’s possible..
- “Armenia’s trade with Russia has increased…”
Correction: Cutler wants to leave the impression that Armenia, unlike Azerbaijan, is becoming an important trading partner of Russia. Armenia’s trade with Russia is $2.1 billion. Azerbaijan’s is $2.03 billion. Of course, pen-for-hire Cutler doesn’t want to mention the Azeri figure.
- “At the same time, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard has only been intensifying its military-industrial cooperation with Armenian economic leaders in technological and surveillance fields.”
Correction: As often is the case, gun-for-hire Cutler provides no information to buttress his allegation. And he doesn’t mention Israel’s contribution to Azeri electronic espionage against Armenia. He also doesn’t mention Azerbaijan is the stamping ground of Mossad spies who infiltrate Iran through Azerbaijan and kill Iranian scientists and military figures. That kind of “surveillance” is naturally acceptable to the obnoxious professor.
- “And, recently the deputy governor of the region in the south of the country THAT ARMENIA CALLS SYUNIK [our capitalization] met with the Chinese ambassador to Yerevan, in order to declare that he wants foreign direct investments in the region.”
Correction: So now it’s a crime for Armenia to welcome Chinese investment. En passant, Sly Cutler also cast doubts about Syunik’s status as part of Armenia.
- “The pro-Armenian tilt of President Barack Obama, from the start of his first term in 2009, compounded a paralysis of U.S diplomacy toward the South Caucasus.”
Correction: Cutler provides no proof of Obama’s “crime”.
- [Azerbaijan’s] military hostilities with Armenia in its Tavuz district.”
Correction: Cutler Photoshops the Azeri invasion of Armenia as “hostilities”.
- [Armenia] has also clearly cooperates with the dictatorial theocracy of Iran likewise for decades.”
Correction: What about Aliyev? Supine to Israel, Aliyev is the head of a brutal dictatorship which persecutes minorities, imprisons journalists, tortures Armenian POWs, and kills Armenian civilians. The crimes of Aliyev go unmentioned in the good professor’s verbal ejaculation. Come to think of it, what about the Israeli theocracy? After all, Israel’s justification of stealing Palestine is that God promised the land to Abraham.
- “The South Caucasus is becoming a fault line between the two major tectonic plates of an ‘Anglosphere’ and a ‘Sinosphere.”
Correction: It must come as a surprise to Armenians that without their knowledge they have become member of something called Sinosphere.
- “The Role of Armenia in French Elections” (Jan 11, 2022)
- “Eric Zammour” [French politician] recently visited Armenia to underline his overtly xenophobic and anti-immigrant program.”
Correction: Zammour was not invited to Armenia. Yerevan would have offended millions of Frenchmen had she refused entry to the politician.
Then Cutler does a clumsy somersault and admits Armenia objected to Zammour’s visit but then adds: “It’s hard to know for certain why Armenian objections are raised against Zammour, but his Jewishness maybe a reason…” Aaah, that turgid ploy again: calling a whole nation anti-Semitic is the last refuge of scoundrels.
- “It’s known from professional public-opinion surveys that Armenia is the second-most anti-Semitic country in Europe.”
Correction: Although the tired sow has been discredited, Cutler misses no opportunity to attack Armenians. Cutler must also think “professional public-opinion survey” is more credible than public opinion survey.
- “Armenian Christians outside France have long been symbolic for the conservative Catholic right in France.”
Correction: What does the nonsensical sentence and claim mean? It must come as news to the five to six million mostly Apostolic diaspora Armenians that they’re the pets of the Catholic right in France.
- Cutler then goes after Karekin Njdeh and calls him fascist.
Note: He doesn’t mention that Njdeh became friendly with the Germans because he hoped a victorious Germany would liberate Armenia. Cutler doesn’t mention that a far greater number of Azeris joined the German army than Armenians.
- Cutler lists the seven “sinful” pillars of Njdeh’s ideology: fatherland, blood-race, language, martyrs, ancestors, the strong always win, and the importance of the leader. If these are sins, then the United Nations must be dismantled and every UN diplomat, including Israeli, should go home.
- Elsewhere Cutler writes about the “deleterious influence of the extremist [Armenian] diaspora, particularly in the United States.” Per his modus operandi, Cutler doesn’t back his throwaway charge.
We have seen better arguments than that of Cutler’s in a bowl of alphabet soup. His effusions are so lame they seem to be in need of wheelchair. Cutler gives journalism a bad name. He should do some soul searching: maybe he will find one. He reminds one of a ridiculous character named Odius Erronius in an ancient Roman comedy.
Take one black widow, cross it with a scorpion and wean their poisonous offspring on a mixture of prussic acid and treacle. Outcome would be the anti-Armenian sting of pseudo-journalist Cutler’s and fellow-travelers such as Matthew Bryza, Nurit Greenger, Irina Tsukerman, Jason Katz, Rachel Avraham, the late Arye Gut and Alexander Murinson, Jacob Kamaras, Israel Baruk, Samuel Rahmani, Maxime Gauin, Justin Amler, Marcia Bronstein, Diana Cohen Altman, and Brenda Schaeffer. The only way Armenians can fight these charlatans is by establishing a committee which would promptly expose the facile untruths they spew on the mass media.
Zionist writers have no regard for the negative consequences of what they write about Armenians today, just as their predecessors supported the fascist Young Turks in the early 20th century.