US expert: Armenia is playing a very dangerous game’

“Armenia is playing a very dangerous game by simultaneously backtracking from the commitments it agreed to under Russia’s mediation in November 2020, distancing itself from its CSTO ally, and reaching out to the West. All responsible stakeholders must do their utmost to convince Pashinyan that he’s playing Russian roulette with a practically full chamber,” US expert and PhD in political science Andrew Korybko, who lives in Moscow, told Report.

According to him, this is all part of some gamble to coerce concessions from Azerbaijan: “The only reasonable explanation for these moves is that it’s either planning to abandon the peace process entirely after possibly clinching security guarantees from countries like France, even if they’re only informal ones, or this is all part of some gamble to coerce concessions from Azerbaijan. In any case, it’s highly irresponsible and recklessly risks provoking another conflict.”

Korybko noted that nobody can say for sure what’s driving Yerevan, and even Pashinyan himself might not have any clear endgame in mind: “For all intents and purposes, he’s turned into a puppet of his country’s ultra-nationalist French- and US-based diaspora, who are dead-set against their homeland concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan."

"These foreign ethno-fascists don’t care if there’s another war since they won’t be directly affected if one breaks out, but those of their ‘fellow’ Armenians still in that country would face a disaster of unprecedented proportions should that happen. It’s therefore of the highest importance that this scenario is averted, to which end all responsible stakeholders must do their utmost to convince Pashinyan that he’s playing Russian roulette with a practically full chamber. The Kremlin has tried its best to talk sense into him but to no avail, as evidenced by his pro-Western pivot in recent weeks so it falls upon the West and particularly the US to do what’s needed to get the peace process back on track. Regrettably, however, some policymakers there have fallen under the influence of the Armenian diaspora lobby and wrongly think that their country’s interests are best served by clinging to false hopes that the conflict can indefinitely remain frozen. That would be an epic miscalculation since Azerbaijan is determined to resolve this decades-long issue, ideally by peaceful means. The US can either play a historic role in diplomatically ending the Karabakh Conflict to the applause of all Azerbaijanis or risk being resented by them if it fails to fulfill their expectations, not to mention possibly encourages another war,” the US expert said.