Thimble-rigger from the stall. Pashinyan is busy with political foul play instead of serious work

At his recent press-conference, Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia, once again placed himself on record with some foolish statements. In particular, he claimed that Yerevan had submitted a new proposal to Baku within the on-going negotiations – «to sign the already agreed articles of the peace treaty and to continue negotiating the remaining provisions of the document». 

According to Pashinyan, 13 articles out of 17 are fully agreed upon, and 3 articles are partially agreed upon. However, he did not specify the outstanding issues. According to the Armenian Prime Minister, diplomatic relations between the two countries will be established upon signing the peace treaty. He said, the treaty would constitute the additional grounds for discussing various issues.

Our correspondent discussed all that along with other things with Igor Korotchenko, a Russian political analyst, the General Director of the Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies.

– Definitely, such a proposal by official Yerevan is nothing but political foul play. A full-fledged peace treaty is required to establish peace and tranquility in the South Caucasus and to prevent any military conflicts here. The negotiations on such peace treaty are going on for quite some time, this is routine work. Five basic principles worded by official Baku need to form the basis of this treaty.

And of course, the main requirement of all unbiassed analysts and experts is that simultaneously with signing the peace treaty Armenia should introduce the respective changes in its Constitution to exclude the clauses containing territorial claims against Azerbaijan. It means that the treaty should be absolutely finalized from the legal standpoint. It is the capstone document and should provide for all the necessary provisions. Pashinyan is offering a sort of imitation treaty bracketing out the clauses, on which Yerevan does not wish to meet halfway with Baku and thus is pushing for such «under-treaty». 

Of course, these rigged playing cards in the hands of Armenian elites are clearly visible. This is why the Azerbaijanian party cannot accept Pashinyan’s proposal at all. It needs a clear and straightforward peace treaty regulating all the points of discussion. It will be impossible to achieve peace and stability in the South Caucasus without such document.  

– At the press-conference Pashinyan did not waive Armenian territorial claims, but suddenly strongly blamed Azerbaijanian Constitution for having such claims. What is he trying to achieve with such statements?

– Apparently this is just rubbish. This is nothing by cheating with the rigged cards at the political table. Conceptually, the two country leaders are supposed to play political chess, and the peace treaty should be the result of the game. However, Pashinyan resembles an Armenian thimble-rigger from some stall who is trying to manipulate and is «rolling the balls» being sure that he is engaged in big politics. Of course, this is nonsense – Azerbaijanian Constitution does not include any territorial claims against Armenia. Just like in the aftermath of the 2nd Karabakh War and pinpoint anti-terrorist operations, official Baku has been repeating again and again: let us sign the peace treaty, carry out delimitation and demarcation of the frontier, let Armenia exclude from its Constitution any reference to the documents containing territorial claims against Azerbaijan, and then we will live a normal peaceful life. We will be developing transportation and logistical ties and the economy.

Instead of that we can see that many countries, mainly France, are funneling arms into Armenia. And this process is steadily speeding up. It is obvious that Pashinyan’s initiatives are proposed upon consultations with his chief partners – the USA, France and the EU. The attempt to cheat against Baku in such a manner brings to mind a well-known Russian proverb: «Though modesty be a virtue, yet bashfulness is a vice». Such Pashinyan’s behavior causes nothing but laughter, and this makes the Armenian Prime Minister an absolutely unserious character trying to seize the political initiative. 

Let us not forget the context, in which the Armenian authorities are making such statements. A very successful official visit of President Putin to Azerbaijan has just finished, and recently the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement of warning the Armenian government. Minister Lavrov also talked about the need to open an ex-territorial Zangezur transportation corridor. 

On the other side, roguish Armenia is trying to thimblerig at the political table and to bring charges against Baku in all seriousness. But Azerbaijan ultimately needs just one thing peaceful development, and for that it needs changes in the Armenian Constitution, delimitation and demarcation of frontiers – and that’s it. And then Armenia will get access to stable trade and economic relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey, because it will be a synchronized process. And Pashinyan’s attempts cause just laughter and regret.

– The referendum on Armenian Constitution was rescheduled for 2027. Why?

– The main reason is that the West does not wish peace and tranquility in the South Caucasus. Today it is one of the most important geopolitical regions of the world. The processes in that region will determine big political processes in Eurasia. We understand that the South Caucasus is the crossroads of the main transportation and logistical routes. The West still would like to see all the global trade functioning through marine routes providing for significant preferences to the countries with strong fleets, such as the USA and Great Britain. This gives them an opportunity to control all the transportation and logistical routes. As for the South Caucasus, it is the venue for land transportation corridors, which the Western countries cannot control.

We are dealing here with the Great Game that the West is playing simultaneously against Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia and China, say nothing about Iran. Pashinyan is the mouthpiece of someone else’s geopolitical will. Today the Armenian policy does not have an identity of its own, Armenia became the subject of manipulations and pressure of the West. In this sense, everything that Pashinyan does is synchronized with the West, at least – with three centers of power, so it is in that or another extent in line with the interests of the Western players who have their own special vision on the region. 

First of all, we need to understand that the game that the West is playing by the hands of Yerevan is a multi-move one. For example, the USA, France and the EU today are interested in changing the Georgian government in the course of the October elections, i.e. to sponsor a coup d’etat by way of not recognizing the election outcomes. It will definitely mean bringing rampant fans of Saakashvili to power. And they can come to power only using un-constitutional ways, because they will lose fair elections. That is why Saakashvili’s fans will try to overthrow the lawful government in Georgia synchronizing it with the negative processes going in Armenia.

At the same time, these forces are trying to affect Azerbaijan – a strong sovereign country with huge political weight in the international arena proposing global initiatives. As we all know, soon Baku will be hosting a truly global event – ÑÎÐ29, and some Western players including the Armenian expat community already started their dirty destructive sabotage. However, Azerbaijan is headed by a strong leader, which means making sovereign independent decisions in both foreign and domestic politics. This is exactly what makes the West unhappy. So, they will be doing everything they can with the hands of Yerevan to destabilize the situation in the region, to prevent it from achieving tranquility and peace, to impede execution of comprehensive peace treaty, to help Armenian revanchists to renew their reckless military escapade as soon as they believe they have accumulated enough force.

By the way, officers in the Armenian General Staff are now very attentively studying the ways to use the most advanced combat UAVs in modern military conflicts, so they are able to apply these practices during military operations in case Yerevan lets lose the dogs of war again.

– Azerbaijan accuses Armenia in revanchism due to the recent launch of military and technical cooperation between Yerevan, Paris and New Delhi. The Armenian Prime Minister claims these accusations as unfair saying that any country has the right to defend itself, to have a strong and capable army …

– Let us not forget that Armenia is an aggressor country. It was effectively occupying 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan for 30 years. Armenia is to blame for Khojali massacre, this crime against humanity. Due to the actions by official Yerevan one million of Azeri people were expelled from their home grounds. In this context I believe it is necessary to look for and to apply such internationally accepted language for the treaty, which would limit the opportunities of Armenia for rearmament. Certain restrictions should be imposed on the aggressor country: with respect to the number of armed forces, weapon structure, and the main thing is to exclude any missile and other combat systems. Of course, this is not easy to achieve, but all these issues need to be put on the agenda – at least for the discussions between experts and analysts, so that the politicians are able to put them into practice in future.