HOW WILL PUTIN RESPOND TO SERZH SARGSYAN
March 24 2015
Serge Sargsyan’s statement regarding the sale of weapons to
Azerbaijan by Russia hours before leaving for Brussels to the
European People’s Party Summit was described as sensational. While,
the issue of selling weapons to Azerbaijan by Russia was raised by the
government authorities last year at different levels, and, basically,
Serzh Sargsyan’s statement is not new, this is already the fourth
statements of such kind by the government authorities of Armenia. So,
at the international media forum called “At the Foot of Mount Ararat”,
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, in response to the question of
a journalist from Moscow regarding the selling of weapons by Russia
to Armenia’s EaEU membership and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicting
parties, noted, “Since the establishment of the Armed Forces of the
Republic od Armenia, we are grateful and thankful to our ally for
assistance. Of course, in these relations, we are concerned about
Russia’s selling weapons to Azerbaijan out of different reasons and
rationale, and the problem here is not the quality of armament. The
problem is that an Armenian fellow standing on our border or on the
line of contact realizes that they try to destroy him with Russian
weapons. This is the hardest thing, and this is what might have a
negative influence on our relations. For a long time, during 250
years, the Armenians and Russians have been living side by side,
had common enemies, foes, and have not fired at each other from
guns produced in their country. This is an issue, a problem, and
this problem must be resolved.” A few days ago, Armenia’s Foreign
Minister Edward Nalbandian, in his interview to Slovenian
daily, addressing the Karabakh settlement issue, said, “We would
prefer that Russia not to sell weapons to Azerbaijan. We’re not
asking our friendly countries, partner countries to do something for
Armenia against somebody else. What we are expecting concretely on
Nagorno-Karabakh issue is not to support one side against the other,
just to be in line with the position of the international community,
expressed by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. And Russia is
one of the three Co-Chairs.” First, it is not clear here why we do
not ask or suggest our friend, partner, moreover ally countries to do
something for Armenia something against somebody else, for example,
Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan conducts consistent work against Armenia at all
international structures and with many countries and often achieves
success. Recall assassin Safarov’s extradition, now Azerbaijan has
joined the extradition of Azerbaijanis Dilham Askerov and Shahbaz
Guliyev convicted imprisonment in Nagorno-Karabakh, and one gets the
impression that official Baku is working with the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs countries in this direction. Let’s go back, however, to
the Armenian-Russian relations. The TA government authorities cannot
revise their decision and raise the issue of termination of Armenia’s
membership to the EaEU. This is simple. Or, at least at this stage
it is not realistic to expect. The RA government authorities perhaps
yet have considered that they had made a right decision, moreover, it
is clear that it was a political decision rather than an imperative
dictated by economic convenience and expediency. If this structure
is established, yet only after then we can create bases to study the
possibilities of Armenia’s integration development under the Eurasian
framework. Armenia, however, can revise the situation in the co-
relationships with Russia by running a more sensitive policy for the
benefit of Armenia. This does not require constant public speeches
and remarks. On the contrary, Armenian government has a lot to do in
the diplomatic arena, which should not always be visible to the public.
The outcome of the work completed is preferable to be visible. Given
the fact that since last year Armenian government authorities are
publicly voicing the fact of selling weapons to Azerbaijan by Russia
and are expressing their concern, one can conclude that they do not
raise this issue to the Russian side behind the scenes and prefer to
be limited with only public messages. This can even be considered an
alarm by the RA government authorities, which hardly be welcomed in
Moscow. In his interview with Clarin newspaper in Buenos Aires, last
summer, Serzh Sargsyan for the first time publicly complained about
Russia’s selling arms to Azerbaijan. “It is a very painful subject
and our people are worried that our strategic ally sells weapons
to Azerbaijan.” While, in the last fall, referring to Russia’s arms
sales to Azerbaijan, Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said,
“Supplying the enemy with ammunition is always at the core of our
attention, and we express our concerns in all instances.” The subject
of supplying Azerbaijan with ammunition has always been raised
in different instances and when working with the international
organizations, however, the level of Armenian-Russian “strategic”
relations suggests a more specific solution to this issue. Russia
is an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair country with the United States and
France, it implements a mission aimed at achieving peace through
Karabakh talks and reconciliation of the parties. But Russia does
exactly the opposite. Selling weapons to Azerbaijan, Russia pushes a
military solution, or at least its propaganda. Indeed, it is clear
to everyone that if Russia does not sell weapons to Azerbaijan,
Aliyev would purchase it from other countries to show his country
citizens how “patriotic” he is and where the money goes. But aren’t the
Armenian-Russian “strategic” relations worthy for Russia not to sell
weapons to Aliyev, like the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing United States
and France do not do it. Armenia joined the EaEU perhaps taking the
security guarantees given by Russia as a base and refused signing the
EU Association Agreement. Armenia’s and Nagorno-Karabakh’s security
has not been improved, but also our opponent country has become
more uncontrolled and cynical. Official Moscow has not responded
to Serzh Sargsyan’s already two, RA Defense Minister’s months ago,
as well as RA Foreign Minister’s quite transparent and unambiguous
statements of Russia’s selling weapons to Azerbaijan. As they say,
the ball is with the Russian side.
Emma GABRIELYAN
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