According to political scientist Armen Vardanyan, that was the price Russia received from Azerbaijan for its neutrality during the 44-day war.
The issue of Azerbaijan’s observer status in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has recently been discussed. RA Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan stated on this occasion that the issue requires a consensus decision. We asked Armen Vardanyan if Azerbaijan would be granted the status of an EEU observer and what the consequences would be. He answered, “That was the price Russia received from Azerbaijan for its neutrality during the 44-day war. This game started in 2015 when the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov was asked if Azerbaijan would join the EEU or not, and he said they will enter the EEU if the Karabakh issue is resolved. In other words, he was hinting to Russia to help us bring back Karabakh and we will join the EEU. Now all these obstacles have been removed, the last lines are left, and that is the demarcation and delimitation required by Azerbaijan and a number of other issues, after which Azerbaijan will join the EEU.” According to Armen Vardanyan, that deal has already had all the possible bad consequences for us. We inquired whether the border demarcation and delimitation processes would accelerate against this background, he answered, “There will be urgency. This process is carried out artificially. Russia will try to put pressure on Armenia to carry out this process.”
In response to our observation about how after the Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting, there was talk of opening more communications, Armen Vardanyan said, “The game goes in several directions. It is not only demarcation and delimitation. If the border is to be opened, Azerbaijan must join the EEU, and communications must be opened so that the economic benefits are greater. That is why the process is moving forward in several directions. And Armenia should try to reap the greatest economic benefits for itself.”
Speaking about the Armenia-Turkey dialogue, Armen Vardanyan once again stressed that Armenia should hold talks with Turkey without any preconditions and detailed, “Armenia should not allow Turkey to set big preconditions for Armenia. We must try to negotiate with that country. We have a bad neighbor who has the second NATO army and a big economy. It is aggressive. We should try to negotiate with it. Here, too, the factor of smart diplomacy is important. We must show flexibility in order to make no concessions to Turkey. We should try to normalize relations and advance our interests, but it should not be at the expense of unilateral concessions.”
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Tatev Harutyunyan
