“After the military aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh and the ethnic cleansing of its indigenous population, the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process has reached a dead end,” said former special ambassador of Armenia and leader of the opposition party “Bright Armenia” Edmon Marukyan, who shared his critical assessments in an interview with VERELQ on the current state of the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process and Yerevan’s foreign policy in general.
Marukyan characterizes the peace treaty negotiations as “purely formal” and “ornamental,” arguing that the Karabakh conflict cannot be considered resolved.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict cannot be considered resolved in any way and therefore the peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan is something where the conditions are dictated with a gun to the head.” – Marukyan explained.
According to him, the process ignores key issues, including the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the rights of 150,000 Armenian refugees from Karabakh, Baku’s reluctance to officially recognize Armenia’s territorial integrity, the lack of an agreed map to delimit the border and unresolved issues over unblocking communications.
Speaking about the transition to a bilateral format of negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, without intermediaries, as the Armenian Prime Minister recently stated during a press conference. Nikol PashinyanMarukyan negatively assessed this “negotiation drift”, calling it “a long-term demand of Azerbaijan”. In his opinion, this format does not meet the interests of Armenia and leads to unilateral concessions.
Regarding the November 9, 2020 declaration, adopted at the level of the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan and marking the end of the second Karabakh war, Marukyan offers three options for Armenia. He believes that Yerevan should demand the implementation of all points, including the return of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh and the opening of the Lachin corridor, or denounce the tripartite declaration through the legal process, or interpret the document in its own way. The last option, according to Marukyan, is Armenia’s current approach, which he considers fruitless and “escalative.”
As for the Armenian-Russian relations, which are currently on a difficult path, Marukyan calls for a discussion with Russian partners on all the realities of the recent period and the search for solutions. He notes the absence of a crisis in the economic component of relations and expresses confidence in the possibility of solving existing problems.
“We definitely do not have a crisis in the economic component, but the crisis cannot last so long, it must be resolved and fixed, taking into account the path taken, with a combination of mutual interests. I believe that there are no unsolvable problems here.” – said.
Marukyan also supports Armenia’s participation in the BRICS summit and advocates the country’s application for membership in this organization. His position is based on the fact that Armenia’s largest trading partners (Russia, India, the United Arab Emirates, China, the Islamic Republic and Iran) are members of BRICS or have applied for membership.
In conclusion, Marukyan calls for a balanced foreign policy that takes into account the complex region and Armenia’s unresolved problems.
“Therefore, we must proceed from our national interests and, given our complex region and unresolved problems, we must pursue a balanced foreign policy, not an ‘either/or’ policy.” – the politician concluded.
