Yevgeny Satanovsky: ‘Pashinyan is a kind of State Department populist’
On 19 September, Azerbaijan announced the start of “local anti-terrorist measures” in Nagorno-Karabakh. One of the goals of the operation is to restore the constitutional order of the country and “halt large-scale provocations in the Karabakh Economic District.” Russian political expert and specialist in Oriental studies, President of Institute of the Near East research centre Yevgeny Satanovsky commented on the situation with new aggravation of the old conflict and told Realnoe Vremya about the role of the “third party” in it.
“A five-day war is a pure result of work of American politics in Trans-Caucasia”
The political expert drew a direct analogy between the current Armenian leader, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and ex-Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili calling them brainchildren of one project — that of the State Department.
“Talking about Pashinyan. Pashinyan is a very interesting image. So we have Karabakh, great. There is a Karabakh clan, heroes of the First Karabakh War, great. They govern Armenia, they govern Karabakh. At the same time, Yerevan doesn’t officially recognise Stepanakert, and all these people loot on a large scale. As a result, a big part of Armenia says when looking at this: ‘Why hell should we care about Karabakh and all these Karabakh people?’ And here Pashinyan comes to power. He visits everything by foot, literally, in a military uniform, who has never been on the front, very honest, decent, labels everybody, all villages and cities. He has people behind. Does this figure resemble somebody? Does it look like Zelensky?
Fine, Saakashvili used to wear a suit, the same thing in general. It is a kind of State Department populist. He comes to power and he really cuts relations with Russia, cools them down, disrupts them. The Second Karabakh War was lost only because of Pashinyan who did his best and at the same time he refused the Russian diplomatic initiative of preventing a war from the beginning and then stopping it before they lost Shusha. In other words, till the end. He lost the war and blamed all of us for this — bad weapons, the help was wrong, in general, we shrug our shoulders. At the same time, only thanks to Russian militaries and Russian efforts — incredible and huge few know about — he didn’t lose the district and in general Armenia is on the map, not to mention Karabakh Armenians. But because nobody will thank for this, right? This is why we have what we have in this situation.”
In Satanovsky’s opinion, “our partners” can worsen the current situation and provoke large-scale military actions:
“Like before, this has happened for centuries, the English hugely make a mess. England traditionally knows how to work with aborigines. All of us who live on the territory of the former Soviet Union are aborigines for the Englishmen. The Englishmen make no less mess than Americans. The Turks have their own interests. In this respect, Armenia is like a wilayah, not Karabakh but Armenia. As wilayah of the new Ottoman Porto, it is quite a normal outcome for Erdogan. According to the Shusha Declaration, today we have an Azerbaijan-Turkish military and political bloc, it is no less stronger than during the years when Azerbaijan was a Soviet republic. But only instead of Moscow it now has Ankara as a centre of making political and military decision. The difference is plain to see, softly speaking.”
“Local anti-terrorist measures”
It should be reminded on 19 September the Ministry of Defence announced the start of “local terrorist measures” in Nagorno-Karabakh to “provide the regulations of the Trilateral Statement” as of 10 November 2020. Restoration of the country’s constitutional order and “halting large-scale provocations in the Karabakh Economic District” are among the goals of the operation.
Armenia doesn’t have armed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Ministry of Defence of Armenia said. The ministry also indicated the situation on the country’s borders is in general “stable.” Official spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova said that the Russian side was establishing contacts regarding the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, including with the Azerbaijani side. The diplomatic institution will make a statement afterwards.