West viewed Karabakh as an obstacle to drawing Armenia into its interests, expert says

Speaking with Alpha News, Russian journalist and political scientist Andrey Sidorchik commented on the role of the United States in the Karabakh issue and the statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that now there is an extraordinary opportunity to realize peace agreements between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

According to the expert, the West viewed Karabakh as an obstacle to drawing Armenia into its interests, that is, creating its own base in the Caucasus.

“Here, the primary issue is not normalization between Armenia and Azerbaijan but the defense of Western interests. The West viewed Karabakh as an obstacle to drawing Armenia into its interests, that is, creating its base in the Caucasus. Therefore, to solve this problem, it was necessary to get rid of Karabakh and try to shift responsibility to Russia. This, in fact, was voiced at the official level.

We just need to keep in mind that when Blinken talks about a peace agreement, this in no way means that this peace agreement is convenient for both sides. This peace agreement will be convenient for the West, but it does not imply, let’s say, the preservation of some state values and priorities for Yerevan.

Karabakh was certainly an obstacle for the West. There was a very clear Karabakh group in Armenian politics, which the West considered not very convenient for the negotiation process. The West is implementing its scenario quite clearly. When Blinken talks about making peace, we must not forget that in the case of Armenia, it will always be peace on the terms of the strong side, that is, the concessions that have already been made by the Pashinyan government will not, in my opinion, end. We can talk about possible territorial and economic losses,” Sidorchik said.

“Karabakh was initially a big historical problem. Another issue is that at some point the United States, having become involved in this issue without having any levers for peacemaking, began to use this history in their own interests,” Sidorchik emphasized.

According to the expert, the West’s goal is to displace Russia and reduce its influence in the Caucasus region.

“The West needs to implement its concept, and protecting Armenia’s national interests is not its main task at all. We must understand that the issue here is not even a peace agreement but an attempt to displace Russia and reduce its influence in the Caucasus region, which, in general, is being successfully implemented,” Sidorchik concluded.