Russia and the United States have agreed that the UN Security Council will not adopt a resolution on the issue of Artsakh, negotiation specialist says

According to Arthur Martirosyan, a negotiation specialist and senior consultant with CMPartners, Armenia has not prepared well for the UN Security Council meeting, held last week on August 16.

“The UN Security Council did not lead us to the goals that we had, because it was a very long process. But if we accept that they have started this process, the question is that whether it has been impossible to do it better. Yes, it has been possible, because the negotiators are negotiating not only for at the negotiating table, but also outside it, as well as with other parties. Everyone was pleased with the speech of the United States representative, but at the end she said that it was necessary to protect the rights of individuals, that is, she did not even talk about Armenians. It means that our diplomatic forces did not work enough with the American side. Or, if the Armenian side had arranged work with Brazil outside the negotiating table, we would not have heard “Khankendi” in the speech of the representative of this country,” Arthur Martirosyan told Alpha News.

In his opinion, the UN Security Council was not the platform where a resolution could be adopted.

“If there were pro-Armenian sentiments, the USA would have lost its position as a mediator since Azerbaijan would not accepted this. It is vital for the USA to remain a mediator so that both Armenia and Azerbaijan accept its options. The same can be said about Russia, it would not want a resolution to be adopted as pro-Armenian or against Azerbaijan, because there is a problem of interests,” Arthur Martirosyan noted.

According to the negotiation specialist, Artsakh is now in a worse situation than in 1988, because Azerbaijan has bigger levers.

“To overcome this difficult situation, we need to use human capital, allowing us to change the power imbalance. We should be treated not as the population of Armenia and Artsakh, but as citizens of Armenia and Artsakh, and for this the Armenian authorities should approach the problem differently, but they do not do this. At the moment, the most terrible thing is that our negotiators are ready to make all concessions in order to come to “peace” and accept all those demands. This will lead not only to the loss of Artsakh, but will also call into question the Armenian statehood,” Artur Martirosyan stressed. Referring to Moscow’s position in the negotiation process, the expert said that Russia will insist that a peace treaty be signed in Moscow.

“Russia tells the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides that they also offer the same thing: “why do you go to sign the treaty in Brussels, come to sign it here”. Thus, Russia will gain time and, in the end, will say that there is an Armenian population in Artsakh that is still in danger, because the enmity lasted a long time, and there is a danger that relations between communities may worsen, therefore, we play the role of a peacekeeping force. Russia will work on strengthening its interests in this peace treaty,” Arthur Martirosyan concluded.