Azerbaijan can be a source of instability in region

Armenian lawmaker, Republican Artak Zaqarian said that the Russian-Azerbaijani bilateral relations are part of Russia’s policy in the South Caucasus and in this sense, the statement made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is quite logical. 

Artak Zaqarian said that Russia’ key aim is to preserve the security in the South Caucasus, and the undertone of Lavrov’s statement makes it clear.

When asked by Aysor’s reporter to comment Lavrov’s statement that the recently signed Armenia-Russia agreement on prolongation of the deployment of Russian military base in Gyumri town contains nothing but the prolongation of terms, Zaqarian said that he didn’t expect other statements.

“I wouldn’t understand Russia if Lavrov said – yes, we are ready to arm Armenia to make it able to resist the aggression of Azerbaijan,” said the lawmaker.

Referring to the “fundamental changes” in the agreement, politician said that those are issues of ensuring the security of Armenia in parallel with the preservation of interests of Russia as well the changes contain issue of equipping of the Armenian armed forces with newest arms and expanding the framework of cooperation between Armenia and Russia. He said that enlargement of the framework of cooperation between the two nations will allow relations and implementation of long-term programmes in various spheres.

“Today’s all actors who have certain goals and who implement policy in the region are aware that Azerbaijan can be a source of instability in the South Caucasus,” stressed Zaqarian.

Commenting Russia’s possible actions in case of Azerbaijan’s attack on Nagorno Karabakh, politician said that “the resumption of hostilities in Karabakh can be perceived by Russia as violation of the regional stability.”

“It’s clear that if the violation treats Armenia’s security, then in the framework of the running agreement, Russia will take appropriate measures,” said Zaqarian.