Farhad Mammadov: Why was it necessary to mention Karabakh in the conversation between Putin and Pashinyan?
Author: Farhad Mammadov, Head of the South Caucasus Research Center
The meeting between the President of Russia and the Prime Minister of Armenia was marked by a display of contradictions and revelations that are usually kept behind closed doors. Many topics pertained strictly to Armenian-Russian issues, and these topics emerged as a result of the establishment of a peace agenda between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The Armenian government, after affirming de facto peace with Azerbaijan, has significant room to maneuver in its relations with Russia. The previous formula of 'sovereignty in exchange for support in prolonging the occupation' was disrupted by Azerbaijan's actions in Karabakh and along the conditional border.
The Armenian Prime Minister openly declares that he is closing the topic of the 'Karabakh movement' and recognizes Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.
However, despite this, as the meeting between Putin and Pashinyan demonstrated, the topic of Karabakh still stirs the Kremlin.
President Putin clumsily mentioned the Karabakh issue in the context of the CSTO. This appeared as overt manipulation, which received a response from Prime Minister Pashinyan.
In Baku, the reaction came at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the MFA's statement mentioned both the MFA and the Administration of the President of Russia.
In Baku, they clearly remember the trilateral statement and the subsequent two decrees by the President of Russia on the deployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent and a humanitarian center, where the Republic of Azerbaijan was not mentioned, but an artificial term from the bygone Soviet era was used.
We also remember the arbitrariness of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Karabakh, the recommendations to separatist leaders not to engage in dialogue with Baku, the 'Vardanyan project,' and the Russian version of a peace treaty with a deferred status. By the way, why didn’t Pashinyan recall how, after Prague in late October 2022, he fully supported Putin’s version of the peace treaty in Sochi, while the President of Azerbaijan rejected it? He could have asked how that came about!
The dispute between Putin and Pashinyan over who first recognized Karabakh as an integral part of Azerbaijan looked absurd. At no stage of the negotiation process was Karabakh considered a disputed territory. Baku negotiated only on the status of the region within Azerbaijan.
However, Russian intentions were different, and the essence of these intentions was revealed in Putin’s speech.
Now, matters in this direction are so bad that mentioning Karabakh is used only in the context of manipulating the emotions of Armenians from Karabakh, whom Russia once again intends to use for its own purposes.
Azerbaijan and Armenia, after wars, losses, and casualties, have recognized each other’s territorial integrity based on the Alma-Ata Declaration, established a peace agenda, continue to promote peace, and do not need mentorship from any other state.
If the Kremlin understood that mentioning Karabakh during the Putin-Pashinyan meeting would come at the cost of Azerbaijan’s reaction and still went ahead with it, they must realize that the reaction has taken place.
With this step, Russia continues to poison the minds of pro-Russian forces in Armenia. Several times, such illusions have led Armenians to catastrophe.
Recently, one of the Russian analysts, with religious fanaticism, insisted that Russia has not forgotten about the Armenians of Karabakh. Such experts and the Kremlin must understand that if Moscow or elsewhere does not forget, then Baku will remind them of the peoples of the North Caucasus, the Volga region, and Siberia. The Caledonians, Corsicans, and Sikhs will not let anyone lie.
Source: @mneniyefm
