"Pashinyan has less and less room for ragtime dancing" Foreign experts on Caliber.Az

And here we are again spectators at yet another performance of Armenian political clowning. Well, how else can one describe the genre in which official Yerevan has been creating and performing lately? Moreover, the Armenian academic chorus of hysterical claims against Azerbaijan, which are becoming more and more numerous day by day, usually raises the volume to fortissimo at the moment when the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be glimmering in the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.

Namely, there is movement in the negotiations. And it seems that peace is so close with the signing ceremony seemingly within reach. But that's when the aforementioned chorus comes in with its tearful whining glorifying the "honest, kind and fair Armenians" and accusing "evil Azerbaijanis". And all the previous agreements, and with them hope for peace, go in vain.

The most surprising thing is that Armenia gains nothing from this, and moreover, it is driving itself further and further into economic crisis and political discredit. So what is the logic and purpose of the current pirouettes of Armenian political thought, which has almost brought the negotiation train to a dead end? Foreign experts presented their assessment of what is happening in the South Caucasus to Caliber.Az.

According to Israeli pundit and journalist Roman Gurevich, the absurdity of Armenia's foreign policy is evident today, and it is precisely this absurdity that most often turns out to have serious edifying consequences for the country.

"This approach of Armenia, including Pashinyan's dances, in fact, became the detonator of the beginning of the 44-day war to liberate Azerbaijani territories, although, as we remember, Azerbaijan offered many peaceful ways to resolve the issue. And now even Pashinyan himself admits that Azerbaijan is making a lot of efforts to sign a peace treaty. But if we look at Pashinyan's recent statements in detail, it appears from his words that the borders have not yet been defined, and Azerbaijan seeks to sign a peace treaty just to use it to make territorial claims," the Israeli political analyst believes.

At the same time, as Gurevich suggests, if we look at the history of the negotiations, we can clearly see that it is the Armenian side that has been delaying and disrupting such an important aspect as the delimitation and demarcation of the borders between the countries. Besides, after the victorious 44-day war, Azerbaijan has consistently made efforts at the international level, seeking the signing of a long-term peace treaty with the assistance of Europe, Moscow and the United States. How can we dismiss this?

"Now Pashinyan has begun his favourite dance in the classic ‘one step forward and three steps back’ style: one minute he is talking about the need for peace, and the next he is backtracking, while maintaining a balance that is favourable to himself. But only now there is a serious problem with this tactic because the prime minister has no possibility to retreat even one step, much less two. Simply because the wise actions of the Azerbaijani leadership have created such a situation that everyone can see who is actually striving for an agreement, and who is delaying in every possible way both the definition of borders and the signing of a peace treaty. Pashinyan has less and less room for ragtime dancing, and I think that Azerbaijan's well-thought-out policy will force Yerevan to sign peace agreements and fulfil other commitments," Gurevich stressed.

As Kazakh pundit and economist Ruslan Salikhov points out, all recent statements by Armenian politicians, particularly Pashinyan, show that Yerevan has once again taken a course to divert the negotiation process as far as possible towards banal political demagoguery. And they always find reasons for this.

"Of course, it is amusing to observe how thoroughly, like a dairy cow, the ‘starving’ Khankandi theme is milked by the political beau monde of Yerevan, and how diligently this theme is disseminated from various international platforms. In unison with it, Yerevan is actively milking the topic of the detained Armenian terrorist at the Lachin checkpoint. Although it is clear to everyone that Baku would not detain someone without a reason if it did not have a huge volume of evidence against him. In principle, everything is clear with regard to both points of complaint, which are now being actively expressively presented by Yerevan in its appeals to international structures: their fate is predetermined - they have no evidentiary basis. And instead of accusations, Yerevan should thank Baku for the gift of time and willingness to compromise. I assure you that international experts see and understand all this very well - there are no fools there, but, unfortunately, there are Armenian lobbyists.

As for the climax of the whole Armenian spectacle, in my opinion, this is the Armenian report to the United Nations on the situation in Karabakh, where, according to Yerevan's statements, a ‘full-scale humanitarian crisis' has arisen. But here, too, everything turns into a farce, it is enough to ask the Armenian delegation a question - why in this case Armenia and someone speaking on behalf of the Armenians living in Khankandi refuses to deliver humanitarian cargoes via the alternative roads proposed by official Baku, what is it that they are not satisfied with?

As I think, very soon we should expect a serious stagnation of confidence of international institutions in the whole Armenian foreign policy, after which Brussels and Washington will start talking to Yerevan in a tougher way," the Kazakh pundit said.