Sarkis Balkhian: The US has more opportunities to ensure the signing of a peace treaty

Russia, the USA, and France are competing to be the “godfathers” of the peace treaty, Sarkis Balkhian, the executive director of the ANCA-Western Region, said in an interview with Alpha News.

“For 25 years, there has always been a competition between the European, American and Russian sides—the co-chairs of the Minsk Group—as to who will be the ‘godfather’ of the peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia. This competition became especially obvious after the 44-day war in 2020. Russia wants a peace treaty to be signed on its platform; Europe wants to do it through Charles Michel and even through President Macron, but surely, in terms of the balance of power, the US has much more opportunities for signing this treaty and putting pressure on both Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Balkhian said.

According to him, the interests of no other country coincide with the interests of Armenia for some reasons.

“Unfortunately, over the past 3 years, it has become obvious that neither Russian nor American interests coincide with the interests of Armenia. There, Russian interests are in conflict with the current political forces of the Republic of Armenia, especially on the issue of Artsakh; the US did not take any practical steps to prevent the Armenian Genocide in Artsakh. As for the sovereign territories and territorial integrity of Armenia, here we also see the withdrawal of the USA, the CSTO, and Russia,” Balkhian said.