Besotted by Western perks, Yerevan bucking peace process Dodging instead of thinking

Armenian diplomacy, led by Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, began a scrupulous defence of its "ideals" after the Brussels meeting. First, in an interview with Armenian state television, Mirzoyan was full of praise for the recent meeting in the European capital. "There has never been an Armenia-EU-US meeting, at least as far as Armenia is concerned. It has become an important stage in the deepening of our relations with the US and the EU. Not the beginning and not the end, but an important part of a big process," Mirzoyan said.

The issue of security was allegedly not raised in Brussels and there was no military component on the agenda, the head of Armenian diplomacy noted. "At the same time, everything we talked about also relates to increasing the immunity of our country, which is also part of the security system," the minister noted.

As for the signing of a peace treaty with Azerbaijan, according to the Armenian Foreign Minister it has stalled. In his view, the parties are at loggerheads over two issues: mutual recognition of territorial integrity and the opening of communications. Mirzoyan said he saw a historic opportunity to achieve long-term peace in the South Caucasus and that Yerevan was committed to the peace agenda. At the same time, the Foreign Minister complained that Yerevan is allegedly facing opposition from Baku when it refers to the Almaty Declaration and proposes to include this clause in the draft peace treaty. The Minister expressed the hope that it would be possible in the near future to "reach a better understanding" regarding the contentious issues.

The thesis of Yerevan's readiness for recognition of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity under the Almaty declaration is nothing but a sham. Firstly, Armenia ratified this declaration with amendments that do not recognise Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan. And secondly, the legal field of Armenia itself excludes the legal force of this declaration. We consider it superfluous to write again about the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, which, referring to the Declaration of Independence, refers to the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan as the territory of Armenia. And now Yerevan is trying to blame Baku in particular, without actually solving the problem.

Mirzoyan also used the public platform to once again distance himself from the CSTO. He commented on the CSTO's reaction to the organisation's zone of responsibility in Armenia. As a reminder, the CSTO previously described its zone of responsibility in Armenia as its sovereign territory within the established borders. The organisation said this in response to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's words that Yerevan will leave the CSTO if it does not receive answers to the questions raised about the CSTO zone of responsibility in the republic.

The minister noted that he did not know to what extent the CSTO Secretariat was authorised to make such statements. "But it means that things are much worse if this is the position of the CSTO countries. It means that this organisation is saying that it does not recognise Armenia's borders and that its zone of responsibility in the South Caucasus is not clearly defined," Mirzoyan said.

To back up his position, he, like Pashinyan, entered the labyrinth of casuistry: "It turns out that the CSTO, in the case of all its member countries, is ready to defend those borders that can be recognised by the attacker and the attacked party. This means that if a country that is not a member of the CSTO attacks a member country of the organisation and forces it to recognise some borders, the CSTO can only accept these borders".

He then reiterated the thesis that the absence of border delimitation between countries does not mean that the state border does not exist. "Armenia and Azerbaijan have a state border, they recognised it in 1991 along with 11 other former Soviet republics," Mirzoyan said.

And this brings us back to the question raised at the beginning of this article. How did you recognise the border in 1991 when you occupied the territories you recognised as foreign? And if you regret what you did, where is the guarantee that you will not violate the Almaty Declaration again?

Yes, the constitutional amendment does not guarantee that Armenia will not lay claim to the territory of Azerbaijan in the future. But it will help to remove the huge ideological basis of revanchism. Not to mention that it is impossible to sign a peace treaty with a neighbour that does not recognise your territorial integrity in law.

But now Yerevan is not thinking about normalising relations with Baku, but about getting all sorts of perks from the West. To do this, it needs to show some confrontation with Azerbaijan. Well, and with Russia, too. Even better: two of them, presenting Moscow and Baku as a kind of axis of evil.

After the interview with public television, Mirzoyan received a delegation from the Political and Security Committee of the EU Council, with whom he made a "historic" statement, saying that "the people of the Republic of Armenia have European aspirations, and we will be guided by those aspirations". Shortly afterwards it was announced that Mirzoyan would not be attending the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers in Minsk on April 12.

Yes, Armenia is running full speed westwards, like a child trying to hide in its mother's arms from the imaginary monster chasing it. The child doesn't realise it's a werewolf, not a mommy...