‘Charles Michel is a pro-Azerbaijani politician’: Gleb Kuznetsov on Armenia’s choice to negotiate on Western platform

Speaking with Alpha News, Russian political scientist Gleb Kuznetsov commented on Russia’s role in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, as well as the presidential election in Azerbaijan and Turkey’s interests in the South Caucasus region.

According to the expert, conflict resolution has faded into the background amid the pursuits of a leading mediator in the peace process.

“We see that border issues have still not been resolved. We see continuous information attacks by Azerbaijan against the sovereign territory of Armenia. We observe the Azerbaijani media campaign claiming that there is no Armenia and never has been.

If you look at what Azerbaijan says and does, it is not at all obvious that the peace treaty is ready and Azerbaijan is ready to sign it, or that even having signed it, it will abide by it. So, it would be nice for those people who claim to be interested in resolving the conflict to return to the essence of the issue, regardless of the location of the negotiation platform,” Kuznetsov said.

Speaking about the fact that Yerevan is considering the next meeting of the parliaments of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Switzerland, the expert ironically noted that “when betting on a horse, you need that horse to be able to run, but for now it feels like horse racing has not even been announced.”

“The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, is a pro-Azerbaijani politician, and as the end of his term of office approaches, he will become more and more pro-Azerbaijani. I hope that the Armenian leadership takes this into account. There is a very strong pro-Azerbaijani lobby in Europe, and this is connected with specific financial interests, projects and contracts. So, in terms of Armenian interests, a purely European platform is not a platform that can greatly help Armenia protect its own interests,” the political scientist noted.

Commenting on the intentions of the Prime Minister of Armenia to rebuild the security system of the country and cooperate not only with Russia, the expert noted that the hope that Armenia will use NATO security is an absolute utopia.

“Armenia needs to understand very clearly that there is one NATO country that is ready to come to Armenia with its full NATO weapons, and this country is Turkey. Turkey is a key member of NATO. It is one of the most powerful armies of NATO, and therefore NATO will not make any efforts to rearm Armenia or provide it with any technological platforms or anything related to security. Ankara is a much more important story for NATO than Yerevan. The hope that Armenia will use NATO military equipment, NATO military platforms, and some kind of NATO security is absolutely utopian. This is only possible if Armenia replaces Turkey in NATO, but this is unrealistic,” Kuznetsov emphasized.

According to the political scientist, the goal of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is always the same—he wants to be the most powerful.

“Erdogan’s game is always a game of king of the hill. He wants to have full political and geopolitical power. As for the partnership between Turkey and Russia, now it looks like there is no alternative for Russia. So, regardless of Russia’s strategic interests, Turkey’s opinion can and will be taken into account when making any decisions regarding the South Caucasus region,” Kuznetsov concluded.