SERZH SARGSYAN COMPLAINED OF RUSSIA
Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments – Thursday, 10 July 2014, 17:32
In an interview with the Argentinean La Nacion periodical Serzh
Sargsyan dwelled on some very important issues for Armenia.
Furthermore, he made an almost unprecedented statement, namely the
concerns of the Armenian people about the sale of Russian weapons
to Azerbaijan.
No such statement has ever been made by Serzh Sargsyan. Once or twice
Serzh Sargsyan announced generally during the CSTO meetings that the
members of the alliance should not take steps that will contradict the
interests of Armenia but official Yerevan has never stated anything
specific about the sale of Russian weapons, at least at the level of
Serzh Sargsyan.
In fact, recently Yerevan has made some changes to its rhetoric
on Russia. These changes are not significant and do not address
any specific matter but when after several symptomatic steps Serzh
Sargsyan’s concerns about sale of weapons to Azerbaijan are heard,
it becomes obvious that the Armenian government is significantly
worried about the behavior of Russia.
There may be two main directions of concerns of the Armenian
government. One is Armenia-Eurasian Union relations which, still an
embryo, toll serious economic problems for Armenia, and the other is
the possibility of a Russian-Turkish-Azerbaijani deal, the closeness
of an agreement.
Serzh Sargsyan has announced that resumption of military actions is
not ruled out but he believes that Armenia will be able to resist
to Azerbaijan. At the same time, Serzh Sargsyan is expressing his
confidence that Russia will fulfill its commitments whenever Armenia
appears in a difficult situation.
It is interesting to know who will measure the level of difficulty
at which Russia will fulfill its commitment. After all, Armenia may
consider the situation difficult while Russia may disagree and not
interfere unless the situation becomes difficult according to its
standard. For Russia’s so-called allies the situation is assessed as
“difficult” and a decision is made when the ally suffers serious
losses and Russia helps it to capture territories. In other words,
the Russians interfere and help only when there is a need to take
territories, not save the ally.
Hence, a difficult situation may mean different things to Armenia
and Russia in terms of their interests.
Therefore, it is necessary to clarify whether Armenia is capable of
defending itself from Azerbaijan or is unable to do it without Russia’s
intervention. If it is impossible without Russian interference, Armenia
is unable to defend itself and defend Artsakh from Azerbaijan. At best,
the territories will be defended which the Russians will liberate
from Azerbaijan heroically and where Russian peacekeepers will be
deployed. Afterwards Moscow will decide what livelihoods will be
available in those territories.
The government must realize this. But what can be done aside from
slight dissatisfaction. The Armenian government hopes for Western
assistance. Serzh Sargsyan has announced that the Europeans may not
be satisfied with the Eurasian choice but hopes that they realize
why Armenia has made such a choice.
Is Serzh Sargsyan hinting that if the West offers some guarantees to
the West first, Armenia may reject Eurasian Union? The situation is
relative, indeed, especially considering that Serzh Sargsyan himself
has become an unreliable politician for the West. There is no guarantee
that he will not hand the Western guarantees of security to Russia.
At the same time, Armenia stops being viewed at the level of individual
partnership but remains in the context of global politics and is
considered as an important factor of fight for influence in the
Caucasus. If Russia is able to complete negotiations with Azerbaijan
and Turkey, the West will be unreachable for the West for a few
more decades.
It has been a long time the Armenian government hints to the West from
different levels that if practical steps are taken in that direction,
Armenia will be “wholeheartedly” committed to the West. However, there
is no answer to the question what Armenia is capable of, in general,
for self-defense.
– See more at:
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
