The Azerbaijani side in its proposals insists on the formation of a new border with Armenia. This information was shared with Sputnik Armenia by political analyst Suren Surenyants.
According to him, this shows that the policy of the current government has failed, and the “red lines” declared by it have long since turned “green”.
Commenting on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s speech in Parliament, the expert noted that it resembled an indirect acknowledgement of the failure of the Armenian authorities’ policy from beginning to end.
“Instead of telling legends about “real” and “historical” Armenia, it is better to let him answer the following question: I have reliable information that the Armenian side in the process of exchanging proposals all the time insists on reproducing the borders of the Arm. SSR and Az. SSR, according to the Alma-Ata Declaration. However, there is a reply from Baku, which says that new borders between Azerbaijan and Armenia should be approved. Now let him say why his policy led to such a result,” Surenyants said.
According to his observation, Pashinyan constantly talks about reproducing the Soviet-era borders, but hides the second part – that Azerbaijan insists on approving new borders with Armenia.
As for the speech of the head of the Armenian cabinet during the government hour in parliament, the analyst believes it was “dubious, strange, illogical and dangerous”.
“Pashinyan’s formulations reveal falsity. In one case, he says that CSTO peacekeepers were not invited because this structure did not recognise Armenia’s territorial integrity. In another case, he says that their deployment in our country was not approved because they are allies, not peacekeepers. Agree that these two explanations do not add up in the links of a logical chain. Two different reasons cannot be the justification for one and the same refusal,” the expert believes.
At the same time, according to Surenyants, the prime minister is silent on the obvious fact that any assistance that would ensure border security should have been accepted. After all, the CSTO peacekeepers could have been called “observers” or something else. The main thing is that they should guarantee the stability and security of Armenia’s borders, the political analyst noted.
The expert also drew attention to Pashinyan’s indirect admission that the Western aid of 270 million euros and $65 million was promised in exchange for another lowering of the “bar” in relations with Azerbaijan.
“Pashinyan himself admitted that if we had an aggressive agenda, and by aggressive he means refusing to make unilateral concessions to Azerbaijan, we would not have received this assistance from the West. However, he himself realises that he has received too little from the West. Moreover, if you noticed, he made another confession that he does not oppose Armenia to Russia, because the resources are not comparable,” the expert believes.
He pointed to the fact that Pashinyan’s rhetoric has somewhat softened compared to his previous, tougher statements. That is, the leader of the ruling force in Armenia is very well aware that he cannot guarantee the integrity of even 29.8 thousand square kilometres. This shows that, in fact, the West does not offer Armenia any real security instruments, and the head of the government leaves a “loophole” in relations with Russia, our interlocutor believes.
“Let me repeat: he has realised that his thoughtless anti-Russian policy has not yielded the desired results in relations with the West. Pashinyan has already said that his participation in the EAEU summit is being discussed. At the same time, we heard a statement by the Russian President’s press secretary that a personal meeting between Vladimir Putin and Nikol Pashinyan is possible,” Surenyants noted.
To disguise his fiasco, Pashinyan, from the analyst’s point of view, presents MPs and the public with a far-fetched, artificial contrast between “historical” and “real” Armenia that has no scientific justification, and is ready to make any nonsense to justify concessions to Azerbaijan.
For example, he says that 50 metres back and forth does not matter, as the era of bow and arrow has long passed. Or he talks about the need to start the delimitation process from the Tavush region, then comes out to journalists and says there are no agreements yet, the political analyst said.
“Obviously, Pashinyan meant that in our age the enemy has long-range weapons. Following the same logic, he may give up Zovuni (a village 4 kilometres from Yerevan) because Yerevan can be hit from afar anyway,” the expert said.
He reminded that in 2021 the power in Armenia was reproduced thanks to the promises about the “era of peace”, which is also reflected in the programme of the government. And, if we lived in a civilised country, after such statements, the one who presented this programme and received the people’s mandate would have to resign or be impeached. Meanwhile, Armenia is forced to make unilateral concessions without even receiving guarantees of peace, the expert concluded.
Sputnik Armenia
