Expert: Yerevan deliberately aggravates regional situation

Yerevan deliberately escalates the situation in the region, and its actions lead to destabilization and delay the achievement of peace, Russian political scientist Yevgeny Mikhailov told Report.

“The next provocation on the conventional border between Azerbaijan and Armenia is a continuation of Yerevan's policy aimed at escalating the situation in the region. Now Yerevan relies on the support of the European Union (EU), more specifically, France. Russia is in favor of signing a peace treaty. Through the mediation of Russia, Armenia has undertaken to demarcate and delimit the borders with Azerbaijan. Yerevan is trying to avoid fulfilling its obligations,” he said.

The political scientist added that Armenia has been showing such behavior for more than 2 years, thereby putting its strategic partner, Russia, in a difficult situation.

“Yerevan deliberately aggravates the situation. If earlier Armenia called on the CSTO to act and provoked the organization to intervene, now all efforts are focused on the EU mission in this country. Russia and Türkiye will spare no effort to solve the issue diplomatically, but they can use other methods for this,” the expert said.

According to him, Yerevan is looking for a new “owner” and attempts “to sit on two chairs": “Official Moscow will not condone such provocations, especially in a region where Russian peacekeepers are present. Armenia's behavior poses a threat to the Russian peacekeeping contingent. After the arrival of the EU mission in Armenia, rallies are often observed in the country demanding the withdrawal of peacekeepers.”

Mikhailov noted that Azerbaijan is a strong country and is still taking diplomatic steps to settle this issue: “But one thing clear is that Azerbaijan will not allow the emergence of a ‘stagnant’ situation in the region that lasted for nearly 30 years until the Second Karabakh war.”