“The shootings are continued consistently, the tension has dropped a little, I think it is mostly due to Azerbaijan’s internal affairs. They have “Formula 1” ahead, huge investments and it is not beneficial for them at all to have large-scale hostilities at this stage. But I am still concerned that it will restart after “Formula 1″ and they will repeat the adventure of early April,” said the head of “Modus Vivendi” Center, Ara Papian, to Aravot.am.
Addressing Serzh Sargsyan’s statement on the possibility of recognizing the independence of NKR, Mr. Papian expressed an opinion that it could not be a restraining factor for Azerbaijan’s operations, “I cannot understand if we recognize we should recognize, what it means that we will recognize in the case of large-scale hostilities. Who is going to determine the size of the large-scale, whether what we had was large-scale or not? In other words, everything is relative. If the goal was to use against Azerbaijan merely as a deterrent, I think it will not work because no matter Nagorno-Karabakh will be recognized by Armenia or not, it is of no importance for Azerbaijan.”
To our question that according to him what was the reason for Russian Ambassador to Armenia Ivan Volinkin’s surprise on May 9 regarding the question about Russia’s selling arms to Azerbaijan, Mr. Papian considered the Ambassador’s response a mockery. Recall that the ambassador has told the journalists, show me documents that would prove that Russia continues to sell weapons to Azerbaijan. “This is a mockery. He mocks because Aliyev himself had announced about the five billion weapons and Putin was sitting next to him and there was no denial from the Russian Federation. What does it mean, show me documents, in other words, what he wants, to show the copies of the agreements? Eventually, these weapons go to Azerbaijan from Russia, physically we see, what else is necessary, should we not believe our eyes too.”
Ara Papian is sure that it was good that Russia’s politics of selling weapons to Azerbaijan was condemned by the level of Serzh Sargsyan but it was belated, “It should have been done long time ago, still in 2010 when we had the first information about the selling of weapons, they should have complained quite tough with appropriate steps if Russia did not stop. The current statements will not have any effect because Russia has announced by the level of the prime minister and deputy prime minister that they will continue selling weapons and there are already indirect rumors that the new missiles were sold to Azerbaijan, this means that an agreement on selling weapons was signed.”
Read also
Arpine SIMONYAN
