By  Trend

Russia’s continuous arms supply to Armenia benefit the aggressor country in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, along with threatening security of the entire region.

However, while the arms purchases of Armenia is limited to outdated rather than modern— and is likely to remain relatively small in the foreseeable future than those of Azerbaijan — there is another side that needs attention.

Armenia, probably best known for occupation of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories and attacks to the neighboring countries, is the aggressor side, while Azerbaijan is the country suffering from Armenia’s aggression for over two decades. Therefore, supplying Armenia with weapons can be regarded as the support to aggression rather than balanced policy between the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The arms deals will certainly not help the peace process, said Agnia Grigas, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC.

Grigas, talking to Trend over the issue, stressed that the arms deals with Russia have become the status quo and will not abate until the Kremlin is ready to let go of its efforts to control its so-called ‘near abroad.’

Russia along with the U.S. and France is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group that acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict for over two decades, but still the illegal occupation has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Russia, providing Armenia with a loan worth $200 million to buy modern weapons, violates its obligations as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair and fails to follow the principle of neutrality, which is of upmost importance for fair resolution of the conflict.