Yerevan demands a proper conversation from Moscow

The two-day visit of the American official will be very full according to the approved agenda. Along with the rapprochement of contacts with the West, Moscow's rhetoric is becoming tougher. It is no longer only about announcements, but also about warnings. Official Yerevan demands a proper conversation from Moscow and continues to insist that there are no military-political changes on Armenia's agenda. 

US Assistant Secretary of State James O'Brien is coming to Yerevan not on a regional visit, but on a visit to Armenia, which has a broad agenda in political, regional and economic directions.

According to the State Department's press release, James O'Brien will chair the US-Armenia Strategic Dialogue Capstone meeting to review significant progress made in deepening bilateral relations and discuss next steps.

O'Brien will also meet with senior administration officials to discuss US support for "advancement of a lasting and dignified peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including the use of the Alma-Ata Declaration as a basis for border demarcation." The Assistant Secretary of State also plans a meeting with members of the business community, in which civil society will also be involved.

Official Yerevan's Western agenda clearly worries the Russian side. In another statement from Moscow, it is mentioned that if Armenia makes sensitive security information available to the Western countries, it may cause an irreversible blow to the relations with Russia. According to the deputy foreign minister of that country, Mikhail Galuzin, "Armenia's thoughtless steps not only threaten the sovereignty of the state, but may also make it objectively impossible to return to the joint work of building a common defense area with Russia and other allies in the CSTO."

NA Speaker Alen Simonyan responded to these statements.

"First, please stop threatening us, enough of threatening us. Enough talking about CSTO. When they talk about the CSTO, when they talk about the CSTO, let them say where the border of the CSTO crosses and what obligations they have both as a CSTO partner and as a party to the Armenia-Russia treaty. Secondly, Armenia does not negotiate with any country, does not discuss the installation of any military base or joining any strategic alliance.

As for the peace agenda of O'Brien's visit to Armenia, it essentially coincides with Armenia's new statement that it is ready to carry out constructive work and sign the document within a month. NA Speaker Alen Simonyan says that they have sent another set of proposals to Baku and are waiting for an answer, and then it will be clear which issues there is still no agreement on.

"We have reached the stage where most of the points that were problematic both for us and for Azerbaijan have their answers. I said at the end of last year that in case of political will, the peace agreement can be concluded tomorrow. But we are witnessing a situation when, for example, the meeting parties discuss something, come to an agreement, and then the president of Azerbaijan starts to attack that process. I saw that it was related to talk with someone Khojalu. It would be good for Mr. President to talk about the Sumgait pogroms, the Baku pogroms, he should have started talking about that genocide first. For a country that wants to accept the COP, a country that does not want to be criticized by the advanced countries of the world, it must release its prisoners of war, it must release its political prisoners. That person who wants peace speaks one thing at the negotiations and then launches a torpedo."

According to Alen Simonyan, however, this does not mean anything. He says that Armenia will continue its chosen path of peace, the government will bring peace and the presence of clear borders. According to the NA Speaker, there is no alternative.

"The latest example is the statement, 'There will be no peace if there are no constitutional changes.' Our task is to get into real negotiations with a real agenda and real negotiations in the background of these non-existent negotiations. I do not agree and it is already visible that somehow negotiations exist. No negotiations today. The important thing is that we are ready to make the negotiations real and multilateral. Any country today welcomes the policies of countries in conflict. The presence of the OSCE is extremely important in these negotiations, acting as a guarantor."

By the way, a discussion on the dissolution of the OSCE Minsk Group may be held after the conclusion of the peace treaty, says NA Speaker Alen Simonyan, considering that the existence of the group may become meaningless at that stage.