International expert Suren Sargsyan, answering reporters’ question of what the USA expects from Armenia, said, “Bolton’s visit was, first and foremost, in order to get to know us. Five or six experts had a closed meeting with him. What we have been speaking about for the past few months was confirmed by him. He confirmed that Armenia is a priority for his nation, and Georgia and Azerbaijan have military importance for them.”
Regarding Bolton’s statement that Russia has great influence over Armenia and Azerbaijan because it sells both nations weapons, and that American weapons are better than Russian ones, Suren Sargsyan said, “The USA will face serious legal problems for providing Azerbaijan with any aid, including humanitarian. If the 907th resolution is overturned, Azerbaijan will be able to receive aid. It received several multipurpose helicopters from the United States, which were turned into military helicopters. We knew about the second batch of helicopters that were militarized two months ago. Armenia will have more difficulty in purchasing weapons from the USA because their weapons are more expensive. I think that the US wants to open the market to Azerbaijan, and the pragmatic administration wants to create a new possibility for business, which was what Bolton was referring to. The US considers this to be a business in the same way that Russia does. It’s a different question that, in my opinion, it will be difficult to overturn that resolution since Washington’s Armenian organizations are fighting for the resolution tooth and nail since it has fundamental importance for them. It will be difficult for Trump to go down that path, take it to Congress, and ask them to overturn the resolution. There is little possibility for changing the resolution, so a mechanism needs to be found to go around it. I think that the USA really wants to sell weapons to Azerbaijan, but it wants to do so in a legal way.”
Tatev Harutyunyan
