Category: 2019

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

The policy of attempting to straddle both worlds, proclaimed by the ruling Karabakh clan in Armenia, suffered a complete fiasco. The new team headed by Nikol Pashinyan, which came to power a year ago, tried to change the policy of the former regime. Pashinyan hoped to prove that being an outpost of one power, it is possible to get closer to another one.

However, after a year it is possible to come to the conclusion that it is very problematic for the post-revolutionary authorities to implement this policy because Armenia has no choice at all.

The U.S. has once again pointed to Armenia’s place in the American policy. They made it clear that Armenian attempt to straddle both worlds is completely unacceptable for Washington.

The trip of Armenian Secretary of Security Council Armen Grigoryan to the U.S. was very unfortunate, the Hraparak newspaper wrote. Despite all the efforts of the Armenian MFA and the Armenian Embassy, he did not manage to deserve any meeting at a serious level.

Moreover, John Bolton, U.S. National Security Adviser, also refused to receive Grigoryan. It is noteworthy that earlier, Bolton refused to meet face-to-face with Grigoryan in Yerevan. Only Bolton’s office representative and community structures paid attention to the Armenian guest.

After Grigoryan’s visit to the U.S., Russian FM hosted a meeting between the Armenian and Russian FM’s on relations with the North American countries, to be more precise, relations between Yerevan and Washington. The  Armenian FM modestly reported that the meeting discussed a wide range of issues regarding the relations of Armenia and Russia with Canada and the U.S.

In any case, Yerevan will have to report to Moscow on its attempts to establish ties with Washington. After John Bolton’s visit to Yerevan in autumn 2018 and his unequivocal proposals to Armenia, the Russian side is even more closely watching the variation of Armenia’s foreign policy.

In Armenia itself, Bolton’s proposals caused fright and nervousness. In addition to unambiguous indications of the need to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Donald Trump’s adviser proposed Armenians to replace Russian weapons with American ones, which, in his words, are of higher quality. Bolton said that he offered Pashinyan to buy American, not Russian military equipment.

The offer to acquire American weapons is certainly tempting, but Yerevan cannot accept it. Despite the cooling of relations after the velvet revolution between Yerevan and Moscow, Armenia is still a strategic ally of Russia and is a CSTO member.

Russian suspicions about the double game of Yerevan have reasons. Immediately after coming to power, Pashinyan began to take strengthened measures to improve relations with the U.S. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to send Armenian officials to Washington.

Armenia’s 168 hours edition wrote earlier that the reason for postponing the Armenian PM’s visit to Washington was the refusal of the top U.S. officials to meet with him. The newspaper reported that the Armenian side asked for a meeting with President Trump, but he refused the request.

Then Armenians made an attempt to organize a meeting with the U.S. Vice President Michael Pence, who also refused to meet. Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan’s meeting with the U.S. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo could be the last hope to “save” the situation. Although the work on the visit of Mnatsakanyan began, in early 2019, it became known that Washington canceled this meeting as well.

Bolton’s refusal to meet with the Armenian Secretary of Security Council is another blow to the policy that Pashinyan inherited from the previous regimes. Trusting in the magic power of his “revolutionary” status, Armenian PM did not try to analyze the situation and understand why the Americans kept Serzh Sargsyan at a distance. As a result, Pashinyan also found himself in a very bad position.

On the eve of Grigoryan’s visit to the U.S., Suren Sargsyan, the director of the Armenian Center for American Studies, stated with bitterness that the window opened in 2018 for the development of Armenian-American relations was already closed. The expert believes that the United States paid attention to Pashinyan’s statement that he is one of the Armenian leaders, who criticized the U.S. most of all. He added that this statement put an end to any attempts to improve Armenian-American relations.

Thus, Pashinyan wanted to please Moscow and make Washington happy. But as a result, Yerevan received a suspicious attitude of Russia and indifferent silence of the U.S. towards itself.