Russia’s efforts to influence oil-rich Azerbaijan unrealistic – debate

Russia takes sides with Azerbaijan when it comes to tactical cooperation, forgetting about the strategic alliance with Armenia, an Armenian historian said today, expressing his skepticism about the country’s success in bringing Azerbaijan within its sphere of influence.   

“Russia is attempting to keep Azerbaijan close to it, distancing it from Turkey and NATO. But it forgets that Azerbaijan, which has oil resources, can never be dependent upon the Russian Federation. This is why [Nagorno-]Karabakh (Artsakh) remains the only issue for Russia to use,” Ashot Melkonyan, the director of the National Academy’s Institute of History, told reporters.

Shahan Kandaharian, the Lebanon-based Aztag newspaper’s editor-in-chief also attending the debate, said he doesn’t see any differences between the neutral positions pursued by Russia on the one hand and the western states and organizations on the other.

“This neutrality is, at the same time, contributive to the negotiation process. Russia has, after all, a mission as a mediator; hence, it could not have offered more support to any side. As for the Middle East countries’ concept, Lebanon was the only state that adopted a reserved position on the issue. This is a success for the Armenian community,” he added.

Commenting on the domestic diplomacy’s future efforts, Kandaharian stressed the importance of collaborating with the Armenian National Committee to uncover Azerbaijan’s image of a criminal and its its affiliation with international terrorism.

“The world must understand that it isn’t, after all, possible to live in a region where a state has a terrorist’s image - which it actually proved in the four-day war,” he said, citing the brutal killing of the elderly spouses in Talish (Nagorno-Karabakh’s Martakert region) and the inhumane and degrading treatment of Armenian soldiers and their bodies.

Addressing further the topic, Melkonyan added that a possible decision by Armenia to cede lands would entail a crime of genocide against the population of Karabakh.  “The only way to save the people in Artssakh is to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence. This is the approach we must fix for the world community,” he added.