10:20 • 24.07.17
Despite its deepening relations with Azerbaijan, Russia will continue flexing its muscles against Armenia in an effort to pursue its interests in the region, says Gevorg Melkyan, an expert at the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs.
Commenting on the recent meeting between the two countries’ presidents, Melikyan highlighted the existing mutual interests which he said cover also such strategically important areas as military industries, transport, energy and trade.
“In [building the partnership] with Armenia, Russia puts the emphasis more on the political and military cooperation. The other sectors are more restricted due to objective, as well as subjective reasons – as opposed to Azerbaijan which has a direct land and sea border with Russia and hence naturally benefits from its geographic position to maximum deepen the relations,” he told Tert.am.
As another sign of the continuing partnership, the expert highlighted also the existing mutual investments interests. But he ruled out any direct impact on Armenia, pointing out only to the strategic ally’s decreasing significance.
“Some people may treat this as a positive development in the sense that Armenia will see a relaxing dependence upon Russia, but my opinion is that despite Russia’s deepening relations with Azerbaijan (whom it treats as a substitute of Armenia in certain respects), Russia will keep tightening the grip on Armenia to push ahead with its interests in the region,” he added.
As for the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict, which was part of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev’s agenda, Melikyan said he thinks that it was discussed as just an intermediate issue and a mutual concern on which the parties did not focus much as a pivotal problem.
“The Russia-Azerbaijan relations are so in-depth today that any discussion on Karabakh would be of a secondary or even tertiary importance. That certainly concerns the conflict settlement, not the weapons supply,” he expert noted.
He further shared his forecasts on possible political and economic re-arrangements in the region, highlighting in that context Russia’s desire to check Azerbaijan’s positions.
“What we see are very in-depth processes, absolutely serious regional re-arrangements, particularly when it comes to Iran, the Syria-Iran-Qatar triangle and plus Turkey. So Russia needs to understand what position Azerbaijan will take in all these developments,” he added.
