Epress.am News from Armenia
Reports on Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's official visit to Yerevan on Monday seemed to dominate the Armenian print media today, November 10.
“Haykakan Zhamanak”, in particular, writes that a new process around the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution is currently underway behind the scenes, initiated mainly by the Russian Federation.
“[The idea is to] surrender a couple of territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. According to information received from government circles, Russia is trying to convince Armenia to give up a few areas to Azerbaijan in hopes of obtaining Azerbaijan's consent to join the Eurasian Economic Union. As stated by the same sources, this was the main theme of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's yesterday's visit to Armenia,” the paper claims.
“168 Zham” also reflects on the motivation behind the Russian official's visit to Armenia. “A number of often conflicting and opposing opinions are flying in expert and political circles in connection with his visit; however, they all have one thing in common: they are convinced Lavrov had come to Armenia with a serious mission – to persuade/force Armenian political authorities or to receive/extort some concessions.
“Quite dynamic events are currently happening around Armenia, including the new opportunities arising with the abolition of Western sanctions against Iran, as well as the activation of NATO forces in our region. These and many other factors have created new prospects for Armenia the implementation of which stems from Armenia's state interests and, at the same time, contradicts Russian geopolitical interests.
“Thereby, the main objective of Lavrov's visit was not to let Armenian authorities even think about utilizing these new opportunities in the country's favor. The consequences of this visit will become clear in the future from Armenia's political authorities' actions – or lack thereof.”