Armenia’s bogus “concerns” over Azerbaijan-Russia arms business Yerevan’s praising the US and discrediting Russia

Armenia’s Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan was obvious and “courageous” to introduce his country’s new foreign policy strategy that puts emerging aspirations of Yerevan to ditch Russia for the sake of marching closer toward the West, particularly the United States.

Grigoryan is already known as the supporter of Armenia’s West-oriented euphoria by accompanying the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in every location she went in Yerevan earlier this month. However, he reaffirmed the wish of Nikol Pashinyan’s administration for luring Washington by poising itself as the “key ally” of the US in his recent interview with Fox News.

He praised the role of the US in de-escalating the tensions that surged on the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border in mid-September.

“The United States has played a major role in this [de-escalating the tensions]. Strong engagement of the United States played a role to stop the further escalation,” Grigoryan told Fox News reporter, commending the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s calls for easing tensions.

Grigoryan said the pillars for the US engagement in the aforementioned issue are “increasingly strengthening” relations between Yerevan and Washington.

The Armenian Armed Forces committed large-scale provocations on the state border with Azerbaijan on September 13. The intensive shelling of the Azerbaijani positions was accompanied by the deployment of saboteurs who mined the territories and supply routes between the units of the Azerbaijani army in the Lachin, Kalbajar, and Dashkasan districts.

According to the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry, countermeasures taken by the Azerbaijani army resulted in the manpower and combat equipment losses of the Armenian armed forces involved in offensive and sabotage operations. According to official data, 80 servicemen of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces lost their lives while suppressing the Armenian provocation, while 105 servicemen died on the Armenian side.

Official reports have then confirmed that the clashes had first stopped in a ceasefire mediated by Russia, however, it lived short after Armenia resumed hostilities on September 14 and the sides agreed to the next truce through direct bilateral contacts on the same day.

However, Grigoryan did not mention the contributions of Russia but accused it of arming Azerbaijan against Armenia. He said military export was going from Russia to Azerbaijan and that was a “long story”.

“Armenia has been for a long time raising this issue, also with Moscow. We were discussing with Moscow this issue saying that it is concerning Armenia that Russia provides weapons to Azerbaijan which are later used against Armenia,” he said.

But who arms Armenia?

Seemingly, Grigoryan is unaware of the arsenal of his country’s armed forces or tries to look good in the eyes of his “key allies” in the United States. A brief review of the list of major exporters of defence products to Armenia could be enough to bring him from illusions to real life.

The military and defence of Armenia rely heavily on Russian supplies and troops. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia was the largest vendor to supply 94 per cent of Armenia’s arms imports from 2011-2020. It supplied nearly all of Armenia’s major arms during the same period. Russian deliveries to Armenia included armoured personnel carriers, air defence systems and multiple rocket launchers and tanks—all of which were deployed against Azerbaijan in the 2020 war. Iskander surface-to-surface missiles with a range of 300 kilometres, which Russia supplied in 2016, were reportedly used to hit a target deep inside Azerbaijan’s territory during the same war. There were also reports that Armenia fired Smerch rockets, supplied by Russia in 2016–17, at the Azerbaijani cities of Barda and Ganja to kill more than 40 civilians. Russia also delivered four Su-30SM combat aircraft to Armenia in 2019.

Armenia demonstrated the Iskander missiles in a military parade in the capital Yerevan in 2016

Moreover, in separate times, Moscow provided at least a $300 million loan to Yerevan for replenishing the latter’s military arsenal. Discussions have been ongoing to increase the amount even further. In August 2021, following the attendance in a defence exhibition in Moscow, Armenia’s former Defense Minister Arshak Karapetian met with the director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev and the director of the Rosoboronexport Company Alexander Mikheyev to “discuss the whole range of issues of Armenian-Russian military-technical cooperation”.

In addition to arms supplies, Armenia agreed to allow the expansion of the physical military presence of Russia within its borders. In May 2021, PM Pashinyan sanctioned the creation of two strongholds of the 102nd Russian military base in the country’s Syunik region. The base itself has been operating in the Gyumri district for more than seven decades.

The Armenian government also greenlit the deployment of the border troops of the Russian Federal Security Bureau along the border with Azerbaijan in addition to their existing presence on the country’s borders with Iran and Russia. For this purpose, PM Pashinyan even ordered the allocation of land pieces to the Russian troops in the Tavush and Berd provinces bordering Azerbaijan.

Trophies in Baku

The most vivid evidence of the Armenian military’s mass use of Russia-made weapons can be seen along the Caspian Sea coasts in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

Dozens of military equipment of Armenia, which were destroyed and captured during a war with Azerbaijan in the 2020 war are being demonstrated at "Military Trophies Park" on a territory approximately the same size as ten football pitches. Almost all of the hardware displayed at the park are of Russian production.

Some of the Armenian military equipment demonstrated at the Military Trophies Park in Baku, Azerbaijan

Armenia's military hardware destroyed and captured by the Azerbaijani forces in the 2020 battles include 5 Su-25 attack aircraft, 4 “Smerch” heavy multiple rocket launchers, 2 "Elbrus" tactical-operational missile systems, 97 “Grad” truck-mounted multiple rocket launchers, 7 “S-300” anti-aircraft missile system launchers, 40 “OSA” air defence systems, 22 unmanned aerial vehicles, in addition to hundreds of other materiel.

Now, one should remind Grigoryan that before voicing “concerns” over Azerbaijan’s legal arms purchases from Russia, it would be better to check the labels on the weapons at the disposal of his country’s army. Pretending to be blind cannot always convince others to help you cross the road …