Radar Armenia’s interlocutor is Shahan Gantaharyan, an international scholar.
– The informal summit of CIS leaders took place in St. Petersburg, after which the Russian President had a private conversation with the RA Prime Minister. What is your impression of the meeting?
– Only a news item was published from the meeting in St. Petersburg, there is no other information. Taking this into account, it is very difficult to interpret what key issues were discussed there in terms of content. But Bayramov’s subsequent statement that they do not agree to leave the NK issue to future generations means that Azerbaijan wants to quickly and finally resolve the peace agenda based on the 5-point proposals presented by them. The main idea of Bayramov’s statement was that they are showing haste, although it is clear that the Lachin Corridor problem was discussed at that meeting, but, in fact, it was connected with the peace agenda. This is a means of pressure by which they want to finalize the peace agreement.
– As you mentioned, Bayramov stated that the proposal of Russia to leave the Nagorno-Karabakh issue to the future is unacceptable. What does this mean that Baku agrees to continue the negotiations under the moderation of Washington or the collective West?
– I don’t think that Baku agrees to start a new negotiation process moderated by the collective West. On the contrary, Baku is in a hurry to solve the issue in a tripartite format. Although there are various announcements, the main document in 2020 is a statement of November 9 with its derivative statements. And it is in this format that Baku wants to make the peace project a reality, giving it a legal treaty character, which will also have international ratification or recognition. That is why I do not think that Baku will agree to other formats. Baku is in a hurry because the tripartite format is working and Azerbaijan wants to solve the problem in this context. Let’s not forget that the principal negotiators are Moscow and Ankara.
– Lachin Corridor remains closed for 18 days. According to you, why does the Russian side not take active steps to open the road, considering that in 2020 under the statement of November 9, the Russian Federation signed and is obliged to provide unimpeded traffic according to point 6?
– You mentioned point 6 correctly. And the whole problem is that the implementation of the 9th and 6th is proposed simultaneously. If here Azerbaijan is interested in the logic of “corridor for corridor” or “road for status” with checkpoints, then Russia is interested in controlling the two “corridors”, the two lifeways of strategic significance. Both the 6th and 9th points talk about joint security services. In the case of point 6, Russian and Azerbaijani, and in case of point 9, Russian and Armenian. It should be noted that both roads will be controlled mainly by the Russian armed forces.
