During an interview with Artsakh Public TV, the president of the Artsakh Republic, Arayik Harutyunyan stated that the international actors do not present favorable proposals for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“Overall, I cannot imagine Artsakh’s future without Russia’s presence, both as a peacekeeping force and as a mission… Especially in the case of the recent geopolitical developments, which I follow. Of course, the main issue for us is independence, the right of the nation’s self-determination, but I cannot imagine Artsakh’s future without Russia,” he said.
Sociologist Karen Sargsyan, one of the guests on Aravot’s “Areresum” (“Confrontation”) project, expressed the following opinion on this matter: “Arayik Harutyunyan probably wants to visit Hague (International Criminal Court) as a war criminal. Artsakh made three announcements that are enough for the whole government to be sent to Hague: Russia is a terrorist country already (PACE has formally declared Russia a “terrorist regime”). Russia is a country that committed genocide, Russia annexed Ukraine, killing pregnant women with missiles, which is the same thing Azerbaijan did to Artsakh. I do not understand if they are out of their minds, corrupted, or simply ignorant…”
To our observation, that they might not see any other alternatives, the sociologist replied: “Even a fish in the tank sees alternatives. It requires great skills to be this ignorant. I cannot comment on this otherwise. The war has been going on for 8 months, and during these 8 months, they have stably profaned every possible variant to present Artsakh’s nation as people that follow the humanitarian rights”. He added: “Artsakh’s government welcomes any moronic action Russians do in Ukraine”.
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The other guest – political scientist David Stepanyan, brought the example of Artsakh’s Parliament’s factions’ announcement on the decision made on joining Russia in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia: “From the political point of view it is utterly nonsensical to make such an announcement”.
Karen Sargsyan commented on the announcement: “They think if Russia recognized Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, they will get recognition too… How can you put yourself in a situation if the US states have recognized your independence?”
There are already some opinions regarding the observational capacity of the EU, that they cannot solve any issue. For example, Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the expert at the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the Parliament, said the in an interview on Armenian Public TV said: “There is a viewpoint among our people, that if these 30-40 Europeans are here, they will save us and no shelling or violation will occur. And if suddenly, God forbid, a person from Germany or France gets a splinter in their finger, France is going to place its Charles de Gaulle aircraft here. I do not want our nation to believe in such amateur, romantic things”.
Regarding the expectations formed on this matter, David Stepanyan said that he mostly shares Artsrun Hovhannisyan’s point: “But I do not support the overall spread of that narrative, because it is mainly done by (not implying that Mr. Hovhannisyan belongs in that category) people with a pro-Russian orientation. The bar of expectations from Europe and the US is being artificially raised in Armenia and then they will say “See, they did not save us, see, Macron did not give us laser weapons…” Nothing and no one is going to save us but ourselves. It does not mean we should not welcome the deployment of the observation mission. It does not mean that the observation mission is not a restraint tool I am sure it is. And I do hope that gradually (and such intentions are formed) the number 40 will increase”.
He added: “I do not mean that they are going to stop the shelling, but this is the only international tool that lets us avoid another one of Aliyev’s aggressions, which would get a “green light” from Russia. Let’s understand what happened on the 13th of September – an attack that was mainly unleashed by Russia. The Armenian-Russian anti-aircraft warfare was nonfunctional that day. And it wasn’t functioning at the behest of Russia. Our boys were left unprotected and Russia did it. In this situation, we need to welcome any deployment of European observers, even if there were only 1, 2, or 5 of them because it does help our defense. And we certainly should not have high expectations… Neither France, NATO, nor the US is capable of deploying troops, and the reason for that is rather simple – it would not be approved by Iran. And we are obligated to take Iran’s opinion into account.”
Karen Sargsyan believes the expectations that the West will do the same to Azerbaijan as they did to Russia, are groundless: “Sanctions are tools the West uses only when a “hot” war is around the corner.”
Anna ISRAYELYAN
