26 Jan 2021
Russia and the West have played and still they play their own ping pongs [games] in the politics, economics and politics.
They have played and still play around the world in different levels.
These the so-called games [ or ping pongs] between Russia and the West also include in the South Caucasus region within the territories of Azerbaijan in Karabakh.
Armenia has been a sweet darling of Russia and the West [for playing the role of balls in the South Caucasus].
Since 2018, Armenian President Nikol Pashiniyan has become a a ball [in the political and military games] and he (constantly) boasts his melancholic ambitions in creating of a big Armenia loudly.
This former journalist [whose speaking ability in the foreign languages like Russian and English is not good] has become a ball for the ping pong
games between Russia and the West in the South Caucasus region.
Nikol Pashiniyan is an Armenian Chauvenist.
He and his wife demonstrate themselves as the Armenian Chauvinists and they send their son to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan to serve his military service. Why the military service in the occupied Karabakh of Azerbaijan?
Pashiniyan dreams constantly for creating of a big Armenia.
To create a big Armenia by occupying of the territories from Azerbaian, Georgia and Turkey (the neighbors) .
Pashiniyan hopes of the West and Russia to help him in his mission for creating of a big Armenia.
Pashiniyan has become as a good ball for the ping pong games [between Russia and the West].
Many thousands of the innocent people from Azerbaijan as well as Armenia have lost their lives for the sake of the Armenian Chauvinism in the South Caucasus. The question is why?
Just becuse of the occupation politics.
This politics is practiced by Nikol Pashiniyan and his associates in the Dashaktion Party.
His participation in the ping pong games between Russia and the West [witin the occupied territories of Azerbaijan] is encouraged and supported by some Western powers.
Nikol Pashiniyan and his associates
do not remorese and they try to play more ping pongs (as the ball) with Russia and the West.
The OCTOBER 9, 2020 issue of the Foreign Policy "foreignpolicy.com" published an article entitled "Without Russian Aid to Armenia, Azerbaijan Has the Upper Hand in Nagorno-Karabakh" written by Robert M. Cutler.
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Robert M. Cutler writes:
"Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has overplayed his hand by spouting belligerent nationalist rhetoric and refusing to negotiate—and Putin isn’t coming to his rescue."
The author addresses:
"The domestic political pressure against Pashinyan increased when he put former President Robert Kocharyan and former Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan on trial, respectively for “overthrowing the constitutional order of Armenia” and for embezzlement."
The writer explains:
"Sargsyan, who was Kocharyan’s handpicked successor, had jailed Pashinyan in 2009 in connection with the latter’s protests against allegedly fraudulent elections."
Source:
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Both Sargsyan and Kocharyan, the author writes, "are originally from Karabakh itself and members of the same political clan that dominated Armenian politics from the mid-1990s until just a couple years ago."
Mr. Cutler notes:
"In words akin to a verbal annexation, Pashinyan declared that the territories were part of Armenia itself."
Source:
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The author addresses:
"Five months after Tonoyan’s statement in New York, Pashinyan in August 2019 undermined the myth that Armenians in the occupied territories—which they called the “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic,” and is unrecognized internationally—governed themselves."
Mr. Cutler points out:
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Robert M. Cutler writes:
"No Armenian politician had said that since the war in the early 1990s, first because it was political dynamite—since the territory was internationally recognized to be part of Azerbaijan—and second because Armenia sought to maintain the fig leaf of independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from Armenia proper."
The writer explains:
"Indeed, in the Chiragov et al. v. Armenia court case before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, the court rulin 2015 that in fact it was Armenia, and not the local administration in Nagorno-Karabakh, that exercises effective control over Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding territories."
Source:
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The author addresses:
"Pashinyan’s declaration represented a definitive rejection of the OSCE’s Madrid Principles, according to which the territories’ final status would be the product of negotiations."
Mr. Cutler points out:
"His was the first Armenian government failing to give the Madrid Principles at least lip service."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
According to the author:
"As July, after several months of belligerent rhetoric, he explicitly and overtly confirmed his rejection of the Madrid Principles by proposing seven new conditions for negotiations with Azerbaijan."
The writer addresses:
"The Madrid Principles had called for the eventual participation in those negotiations by both the Armenian and the (ethnically cleansed) Azerbaijani populations of Nagorno-Karabakh."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Robert M. Cutler writes:
"Pashinyan now demanded that Armenian representatives from the region should participate on an equal basis with Armenia and Azerbaijan themselves—and without their expelled ethnic Azerbaijani counterparts."
The author explains:
"As the conflict escalates, Pashinyan now has a Vladimir Putin problem; the man who could act as Armenia’s patron and ally is not doing so."
"Kocharyan and Sargsyan both had good personal relations with Russia’s president."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Mr. Cutler addessses:
Mr. Cutler addessses:
"When Pashinyan was in the political opposition, however, he criticized Armenia’s dependence on Russia and the advantage that Russia took of Armenia’s weakness and isolation."
"As a result," the author writes, "Putin is not particularly sympathetic to Pashinyan. The Russian media have not always treated him kindly."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The writer explains:
"Russia still more or less kept a show of political balance as a Minsk Group co-chair, having refrained from extending open political and military support to Armenia, despite having a military base at Gyumri in Armenia hosting 3,000 soldiers as well as an air base near the capital, Yerevan. Russia has generally supported Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan, despite developing increasingly friendly relations with Baku as well over the last dozen years."
Mr. Cutler addresses:
Mr. Cutler addresses:
"Today, the Russian military continues to resupply Armenia.
It flew generous resupplies to Armenia even during the July hostilities."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The author points out:
"The airplanes took a Russia-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Armenia flight path because Georgia refused overflight rights."
The writer notes:
"Azerbaijan did not understand Russia’s military assistance to Armenia in the middle of the conflict, since Baku had been significantly improving its relations with Russia after the United States lost interest in the region more than a decade ago."
"The Kremlin has been caught out in the South Caucasus."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Robert M. Cutler writes:
"It was preoccupied with Belarus, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the uproar over the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, and increasing domestic protest."
The author addresses:
"Azerbaijan succeeded in late September in taking control of strategic heights overlooking the two highways that connect Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh."
(Indeed, a further incitement to Azerbaijan was probably an official Armenian government announcement in late July that a third would be constructed this year.)
Robert M. Cutler explains:
"The Armenian military probably knows that it is in danger of facing a long-term siege there."
The author addresses:
"It has been trying to distract and provoke Azerbaijan with increasing attacks on civilian Azerbaijani towns and cities outside the conflict region."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The writer points out:
"Russia is keen to preserve its influence in what it calls its “near abroad,” where it cohabited with the countries concerned for 70 years under the Soviet Union, not to mention a further-reaching imperial Tsarist history."
The author adds:
"It sells arms to both sides. Thanks to Western embargoes, it is now Azerbaijan’s largest arms supplier, although Baku pays Moscow full world prices in hard currency, whereas Yerevan pays domestic Russian prices with ruble-denominated loans from Moscow."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Mr. Cutler addresses:
"Turkey, on the other hand, has always expressed political and military support for Azerbaijan’s struggle to recover its occupied territories."
According to the author:
"It has not acted any different this time; indeed, Turkish drones purchased by Azerbaijan were an important factor turning events in Azerbaijan’s favor."
The writer addresses:
"Azerbaijan also now has missile batteries and long guns, mainly from Russia, that it did not have before."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Mr. Cutler writes:
"Azerbaijan also now has missile batteries and long guns, mainly from Russia, that it did not have before.
The author states:
"Russia has generally supported Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan, despite developing increasingly friendly relations with Baku as well over the last dozen years."
Mr. Cutler notes:
"Thanks to Western embargoes, it is now Azerbaijan’s largest arms supplier, although Baku pays Moscow full world prices in hard currency, whereas Yerevan pays domestic Russian prices with ruble-denominated loans from Moscow."
"Today, the Russian military continues to resupply Armenia."
" It flew generous resupplies to Armenia even during the July hostilities."
The writer addresses:
"With those and new drones from Turkey, it has been picking off Armenian tanks and other armor rather regularly and with relative impunity, although it has suffered some losses."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The author writes:
"Given the close ties between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Pashinyan himself has played the Turkophobia card and even the religious card, going so far as to suggest that the conflict between Christian Armenia and Muslim Azerbaijan is a clash of civilizations."
The writer adds:
"This all seems to betray a certain desperation."
Mr. Cutler writes:
"Russia declines to support him as strongly as he had wished, and the worldwide Armenian diaspora has been unable to help him when push came to shove."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Robrt M. Cutler writes:
"Azerbaijan’s battleground victories are mounting. Yerevan’s refusal to engage in meaningful negotiations and withdraw from Azerbaijani lands enhances Baku’s determination to make more advances."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The writer addresses:
"Twenty-six years of waiting for negotiations have only produced an increasingly worse situation."
The author explains:
"Azerbaijan still hosts 1 million refugees and internally displaced persons; Armenia has increased its settlements in the occupied territories; and goods manufactured there are labeled as “made in Armenia” and exported without a problem to the European Union."
"The rhetoric out of Yerevan has only gotten worse over time."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The author points out:
"The Kremlin has been caught out in the South Caucasus."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
The writer addresses:
"It was preoccupied with Belarus, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the unexpected uproar over the poisoning of the opposition activist Alexei Navalny, and increasing domestic protest and dissatisfaction."
Mr. Cutler explains:
" It is possible that Moscow will wait until Azerbaijan achieves certain territorial gains to weaken Pashinyan in Armenia and then use its own influence in Yerevan to oust him and install another Armenian leader more pliable to Russia’s wishes.
wishes."
"In doing so, Russia would accomplish several objectives."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
According to the author:
" It would keep the conflicting parties on a short leash by perpetuating a lingering conflict, thus maintaining the Kremlin’s clout in the region while earning some points with Azerbaijan, with which it enjoys generally good relations."
"Moreover," the author writes, "it would punish the so-called revolutionary and unpredictable Pashinyan for overstepping Armenia’s historic role as a client state of Russia."
Source:
Without
Russian
Aid
to
Armenia,
Azerbaijan
Has
the
Upper
Hand
in
Nagorno
-Karabakh
Robert M. Cutler is a fellow of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Twitter: @RobertMCutler
