Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Yerevan is trying to sell its loyalty and obedience to Moscow, delicately referred to as friendship, at a higher price, Vitaly Arkov, head of the PolitRUS expert network, told Azernews on September 17.

He noted that Yerevan’s reorientation from Moscow to Washington will predictably affect the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The expert also said that the provocative statement by Pashinyan in Moscow regarding Nagorno-Karabakh can be regarded as blackmailing Russia with its plan for a phased peaceful settlement of the conflict.

“The West has previously participated in the settlement process both within the OSCE Minsk Group format and through individual projects, but it was namely Russia that proposed the most realistic plan considering the interests of Azerbaijan and Armenia,” he said, noting that putting the plan into practice was hampered by the Armenian side, who was delaying the process by putting a priori unenforceable conditions.

The expert noted that now it is obvious for what purpose it was done – Armenia’s transition to a new patron automatically implies a rejection of obligations to the former patron or a revision of their terms.

He further noted that the new Armenian authorities are obviously blackmailing Moscow, or at least trying to do this.

“And in case of Russia’s rejection of the new terms, Armenia threatens to completely and finally defect to the side of the new patron,” Arkov added.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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