‘Armenia Loses Opportunity to Maneuver Between Russia, West’: Analyst

The agreement signed between Armenia and Russia strengthens Armenia’s security only from the point of view of resisting the Turkey-Azerbaijan military alliance; however, it doesn’t contribute to Armenia’s relations with the US and the EU, nor Armenia’s cooperation with NATO, said political analyst Hakob Chakryan at a press conference today. 

“Armenia, with this agreement, loses the opportunity to maneuver between Russia and the West,” he said. 

The analyst recalled that Armenia had a friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance treaty with Russia even in 1997. 

“That assumed that if either country’s security was under threat, the other party would come to its aid; that is, other than the 1995 agreement, we [Armenia] had that large contract, which Levon Ter-Petrosyan signed in August 1997 and which similarly ensured Armenia’s security,” said Chakryan.

In any case, according to the analyst, the initiative is important since the “situation of goods is essentially changing.” If that’s initiated by the Russian side, then “we’re coming out of America’s pulse and America’s positions in the region are weakening,” which creates a great opportunity for Russia to become the superpower in the region.