Azerbaijan Now Advances in Syunik: What About U.S. Protection? - Modest Kolerov

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Russia in Vladivostok of being excessively involved in the Ukrainian events and failing to address the Caucasus issues. He concluded that there is no need for Russia and went to Brussels, coinciding with the arrival of a high-ranking American official in Yerevan.

“You have expelled Russia,” said Modest Kolerov, editor-in-chief of the Regnum news agency and a historian, in an interview with NEWS.am.

According to him, Armenia aims to obtain a UN mandate for Russia's peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh. “It is well known that the majority in the UN Security Council belongs to the U.S. This indicates that Yerevan is seeking to transfer the peacekeeping mission under U.S. control. It is clear that Russian peacekeepers will not fulfill that mandate,” he added.

Kolerov concluded that a natural alliance is forming between Yerevan and Baku, as Azerbaijan has not confirmed the mandate of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh, with half the term already passed and no guarantees that Baku will extend that mandate.

“Yerevan is helping Baku and is putting the extension of the Russian peacekeepers' presence in Nagorno-Karabakh into question. But where does this naivety come from, thinking that the U.S. will protect them? Azerbaijan is now advancing in Syunik. What about it, will the U.S. protect them? Yerevan has taken a course towards Euro-Atlantic integration, and the review of the peacekeepers' mandate is moving towards NATO. And which is the country closest to NATO for Armenia? Turkey. No other country will represent NATO in the South Caucasus,” the historian concluded.