“In this serious situation after the four-day war in April, authorities of Armenia, unfortunately, were unable to adequately respond to the situation. There are some moves and corrections of tactical mistakes. But the RA authorities could not understand that the state’s strategy must be changed, especially when it is obvious that Azerbaijan will no longer change its policy. Strategic issues must be changed which will become restraining mechanism rather than pretend allegedly that are fighting,” – said the Chairman of “Globalization and Regional Cooperation” NGO, political scientist Stepan Grigoryan in an interview with “Aravot.”
Our interlocutor also considers the Air Defense agreement another inadequate manifestation of the authorities to the situation, “Russia is unhappy that the US and NATO recently installed an air defense system in Romania, now they are installing it in Poland. Russia said that they will respond adequately. Strengthening the Southern Military District, which also includes Armenia, with the installation of the air defense system, Russia is actually responding to the West. I’m sorry that Armenia is not looking at this issue from this angle.”
To the observation that the RA authorities are in no hurry to ratify the agreement, maybe now, the discussion of it at the parliament pursues a political goal to show the truth of what Armenia thinks about Russia, our interlocutor countered, “I do not rule out. But the practice shows that the handover of, so to speak, the chain of powers continues: energy, communication, military industry and so on are unilaterally handed over to Russia by not receiving anything in return. What was it necessary to bring it now to the Parliament? Hence, Russia demands something. To the point, it is not necessarily to have everything negative in this agreement, may be there are positive things too, and we should consider it not only from internal but also foreign political point of view: will the Air Defense protect us? Russia is interested as this is its answer to the West. Why are we entering in the field of Russia-West confrontation?”
The political analyst also notes that we have the experience of the four-day war, we have ceded a lot to but Russia’s stance during the war could hardly be called a pro-Armenian, “We continue ceding elements of independence to this country. The four-day war stress did not teach anything.” Against the background of ongoing domestic political rearrangements in Armenia, our interlocutor gives a high importance to the June 20 meeting of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in St. Petersburg. He is particularly worried about the fact that Russia is the main initiator of the meeting. In his opinion, now, Russia’s role is bigger in the settlement process than it was after the April war, and the chances to “maneuvering” are now less for Armenia, as Russia is not neutral, it has its own interests.
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The main danger, according to the political analyst, is that Russia is consistently running its plan of pleasing Azerbaijan and include in the Eurasian Economic Union, “This is apparent from the strange statements voiced from Russia. Two days ago, Lavrov announced at the State Duma that the Karabakh conflict should be resolved peacefully while Russia continues to sell weapons to Armenia and Azerbaijan. How do they visualize the settlement of the conflict peacefully when they contribute to militarization? During the meeting of the Russian Defense Minister with his Armenian and Azeri counterparts, it was repeated that Armenia is our strategic ally, so is Azerbaijan but we will continue to sell arms to both of them… The contradictions of the words and action are quite disturbing.”
The political analyst does not have positive expectations from the meeting of the presidents because prior to scheduling the day of the meeting, the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia managed to exchange insults. The initiative, of course, came from Azerbaijan, the Armenian side was the respondent but therewith, prior to the meeting, not only the relations between the states but also between the Presidents in person were intensified, “Frankly speaking, I do not see any possibility that they will come to a common denominator if they have begun insulting each other personally … Now, what does Putin have in mind? Or, what concessions does Russia want to extort from Armenia? That Azerbaijan joins the EaEU, we can only assume. However, I do not expect anything good from it.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
“Aravot”
