According to the leader of “New Times” political party, Aram Karapetyan, the interview of the President of Armenia with “RIA Novosti” contained a number of messages, in particular, addressed to the President of Russia. Serzh Sargsyan recalling his steps aimed at the improvement of the relations with Turkey which resulted in the signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols stated that Turkey fails to fulfill its obligations.
In his interview with “RIA Novosti”, Serzh Sargsyan said in this respect, “Can you understand my situation at the time when I toured almost the whole world to meet with the representatives of the Armenian Diaspora. Thousands of Armenians are protesting against the President of Armenia in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Beirut, demanding not to sign those protocols. I was working, convincing, asking. As a result, we signed but they are not fulfilling their obligations. What else to do? To yield and say, “Yes, let’s surrender the security zones to Azerbaijan”, and Turkey will open the borders. And then? Three months, one year, one and a half years later, some conflict will happen and it will close the borders again. It is something that does not depend on us.”
In an interview with Aravot, leader of “New Times” political party, Aram Karapetyan, emphasized that this message, first and foremost, refers to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Karapetyan received an impression from the interview of Serzh Sargsyan that the nothing rational is left in the Armenian-Turkish relations, “It became clear that Turkey will always view the Karabakh issue as a correlated issue. It became more and more obvious that the Turkish domestic political situation and foreign clashes are as such that not the Armenian-Turkish relations are not primary.”
Mr. Karapetyan reminded that he had predicted long ago that the moves aimed at not having closed borders will not result in anything. According to Mr. Karapetyan, that now the issue of the improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations is not active on Turkey’s agenda but it will return to the agenda only as a result of external pressures. Now, the only interested party in this issue is Russia as the US is busy with completely other matters.
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Back to the message addressed to Vladimir Putin, Aram Karapetyan noted, “Lavrov’s and others’ offer, by and large, meant that it would not be bad if Turkey becomes a participant in the solution of the issues related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is clear that it was associated with economic and other issues. Hence, Serzh Sargsyan answers Putin by citing all the obstacles. In other words, that he has gone against persuading to sign the protocol which took place in the presence of the Foreign Minister of Russia, the US and France. In fact, Serzh Sargsyan makes it clear that you have guaranteed, I have become a part of all this, convincing the Diaspora, by throwing stones at me but after all that, they are unable to compel Turkey as it associates this issue with the security zone of Karabakh.”
According to the leader of “New Times” political party, Serzh Sargsyan warns that if all this will be associated with Karabakh or with inviting Turkey with this posture, it is meaningless. Therewith, Serzh Sargsyan replies to Russia’s future proposals. To our observation that in fact, Serzh Sargsyan is refusing “Lavrov’s plan” too, Mr. replied, “As far as I know, no such plan was built up to the end, Serzh Sargsyan refuses these intentions. He asserts an interesting thing which I was telling one year ago that no clause offered by the co-chairs in Vienna and St. Petersburg was fulfilled, the point is about the monitoring.”
To our question that maybe these statements were also associated with the election of the US President Donald Trump, as it is clear that his tenure suggests some geopolitical changes, our interlocutor replied, “Serzh Sargsyan makes clear that if nothing is fulfilled of what was agreed upon, then after Trump’s coming to power, the geopolitical direction of the United States may be a little different, in this case, Serzh Sargsyan raises a question as to what will be the solution to these issues. Therefore, Serzh Sargsyan is trying to give an answer to everyone, saying that nothing is fulfilled, we are on the threshold of a pre-war, actually, there is a war going. Serzh Sargsyan also said that in the case of war, Azerbaijan will have specific losses. This means that Serzh Sargsyan nurses no hope that the co-chairs will be able to solve an issue.”
To our question of whether the President of Armenia has expectations from the West, and in this case, it is the turn of Tramp to react, Aram Karapetyan replied, “The latest escalation that was in the direction of Talish contained a geopolitical component. Aliyev wanted to show that Trump is closer to them, and with his coming to power, they can allow things that they could not do before. This was immediately followed by Russia’s response to the form of a decree on united Armenian-Russian armed forces as Putin understood that the war is inevitable. Hence, they showed to Azerbaijan, “My guy, we are there.”
Aram Karapetyan does not think that Donald Trump will respond in any way, “He does not express any specific stance on an issue except the domestic political matters. This has entered into a mess. It is for the first time that the US president does not address any specific direction in his speech. A vacuum has been created, no one knows his stance on Turkey, Syrian war and the issues related to the South Caucasus.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
