According to David Harutyunov, the positive thing in Armenian-Russian relations is that it is still at the level of statements. He reminded us that Russia also has severe economic levers to influence Armenia.
“There is nothing fundamentally new about reintegration. Since 1994, Azerbaijan has set a problem: it should restore its control over Artsakh. In other words, they consider this reintegration from the point of view of control,” answered political scientist David Harutyunov to the question of “Aravot” what are the dangers of official Baku statements that they are already taking steps towards the “reintegration” of Artsakh Armenians?
The political scientist noted with regret that we have a situation where the international community considers this situation, part of the negotiations with Artsakh, as an ethnic minority problem within Azerbaijan. Those mediators, who participate in the negotiations, evaluate everything in that context. On this occasion, he added: “The EU and the USA they do not raise the issue of independence, Artsakh. Russia also has its characteristics. And that, unfortunately, is a reality at this moment. It did not depend so much on RA politics; Yerevan’s levers were very few: to prolong the time as much as possible, to resist. Against this, Azerbaijan uses its trick: military pressure. Suppose we set the issue of stopping the negotiations concerning Artsakh and trying to impose a different approach favorable to Artsakh and Armenia: theoretically it could be tried, but it would have consequences in the form of the pressure of a different nature.”
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To our reminder, high-ranking officials of the EU constantly stress that we highly value the direct contact between Stepanakert and Baku. Doesn’t this mean these statements give the green light to Azerbaijan? David Harutyunov replied. “In other words, they consider it a negotiation, a dialogue between the center and the minority. And the problem here is not only that they are giving light to Azerbaijan, but Azerbaijan now has such a position that they will not negotiate on some other option. The EU and the US also have no real opportunities to force Azerbaijan. They do not put such a problem before themselves to force something on Azerbaijan. As a result, it turns out that, unfortunately, Azerbaijan imposed its approach regarding relations with Stepanakert.
According to our statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Armenia that Armenia is trying to blame third countries for the fate of Nagorno-Karabakh. To the question of why we were faced with such a situation, David Harutyunov answered: “It is a big question, how efficient and effective is the active criticism of Russia, which our government voices. It needs to be clarified what the meaning of that criticism is. Clearly, in these conditions, when they are involved in the war, such criticisms are perceived more sharply in Russia. It needs to be clarified what the Armenian side gets as a result. On the one hand, as we see, the position of Russia and the CSTO remains the same in the issues that Yerevan wants; on the other hand, we are still trying to get sufficient guarantees from the West. The West is not ready to provide assurances of that level. In any case, we do not have facts that they want to do such a thing. As a result, relations with Russia are getting worse because they are not happy with the criticism directed at them and are starting to respond accordingly. But the positive thing is that all that is at the level of statements because I cannot help reminding that Russia also has very serious economic levers to influence Armenia. We still see that the mutual tension is moderate and is at the level of diplomatic statements, and it has not yet started to take on a real character.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
“Aravot” daily, 18.03.2023
