Armen Grigoryan replied to Overchuk: Yerevan’s policy will not change

The Armenian experts have already managed to react to the statements made the day before by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, who not only stated that the EAEU and the EU are incompatible but also quite frankly pointed out that the benefits that some countries (in this case Armenia) receive from proximity with Russia should be perceived as a payment that Russia pays for its security and strategic depth, so the arrival of non-regional players in Armenia will have consequences. Moreover, the main theme of Overchuk’s words is that Moscow has pretty much issued the last warning to the Armenian authorities and that further escalation in relations is fraught with the disintegration of the economic markets of Russia and Armenia.

This approach is conditioned by a view of reality from the “presumption of sanity”: Armenia and Russia are interconnected not only in terms of economy but also in terms of security. However, as we noted the day before, the Armenian authorities perceive reality differently, and the severance of any kind of relations (whether military, political, or economic) with Russia comes from the interests of Pashinyan and his team, since the current authorities have a political future only in this Armenia (a part of the Turkic world with zero Russian influence). That is why, initially, we should not have expected a constructive reaction from the Armenian authorities to Alexey Overchuk’s statements.

Less than a day has passed since this was confirmed. The Secretary of the Armenian Security Council, Armen Grigoryan, once again stated that it was Russia that surrendered Artsakh to Azerbaijan.

“This happened when we were completely dependent on Russia. Russia came, took Nagorno-Karabakh away from us, returned it to Azerbaijan, and then left. That’s the whole reality. I insist that Russia has taken Nagorno-Karabakh from us. There would have been no war without Russia’s permission,” Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan told reporters.

First, pay attention to Grigoryan’s wording, “returned Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.” This is the core of what happened to Artsakh; they initially considered it a part of Azerbaijan since one can “return” only what previously belonged to someone… What do you think—if the authorities had a similar approach back then—how they conducted the 2020 war at a deep level? Maybe in such a way that “Karabakh RETURNS to Azerbaijan”?

Secondly, if Russia surrendered Karabakh, as Armen Grigoryan claims, would it turn out that he and Nikol Pashinyan are “agents of Russia”? Otherwise, how can we explain the fact that Nikol Pashinyan, Alen Simonyan, Armen Grigoryan, and other government officials have been declaring almost daily that Karabakh is Azerbaijan since at least October 2022? Is the “invisible hand” from London or Washington aware that their counterparts in Armenia are “agents of Russia”, and that “on instructions from Russia, they did not interfere in the war and recognized Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan”?

Once again accusing Russia of surrendering Artsakh, the Armenian authorities responded to Overchuk. They do not care about the consequences of deteriorating relations with Russia. Moreover, we note once again that the logic of the political process suggests that the Armenian authorities benefit from the deterioration of relations. Then integration into the Turkic world will no longer have an alternative.

Grigoryan, at the same time, did not actually announce anything new. He repeated what Nikol Pashinyan and Alen Simonyan had said earlier. It should be noted that after that, MP Ruben Rubinyan also stated that “Turkey has let Armenia down, since agreements on opening the border between the country for holders of diplomatic passports and citizens of third countries have not yet been implemented.” So, the Armenian authorities are being let down by everyone. According to them, both Russians and Turks are doing this, and Edmond Marukyan even complained that the Europeans, in particular Charles Michel, had let Armenia down as well.

Who needs the power that everyone lets down?

Think about it…