Where will the "peace treaty" and the "Trump bridge" lead the South Caucasus?

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said in April that Azerbaijan and Armenia do not need mediators.

"It is quite possible that all countries interested in peace in the South Caucasus can participate in this process. But in terms of concrete negotiations, we have the possibility to talk directly, we have contacts, we can easily exchange ideas. From a technical point of view, we have no problems. That's why we probably don't need any more mediation," he said. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Baku and Yerevan in the same month. He promised Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that he would help him move closer to the European Union and sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. It was not Steinmeier but Trump who turned out to be Pashinyan and Aliyev's "assistant".

On what he described as a historic day, the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met at the White House. There, smiling and shaking hands, they promised not only to "make peace" but also to donate the Zangezur corridor to the United States. The route linking Azerbaijan to Turkey (via Armenia and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan) will be managed by U.S. companies for 99 years. Earlier, Pashinyan donated to the United States one of the oldest copies of the "Book of Lamentations" by Armenian poet and philosopher-theologian Grigor Narekatsi. This manuscript will now be housed in the Washington Museum of the Bible.

Given that Armenians consider such manuscripts to be the foundation of the state, such a gift seems like a betrayal. And a continuation of the war with the Church. Pashinyan has arrested more than a dozen Armenian opposition theologians (along with them, Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan). Among them is Bagrat Galstyan, leader of the opposition movement "Sacred Struggle". Is there an opposition left in Armenia that is capable of resisting Pashinyan?

On the night of 31 March, immediately after the local elections, the leader of the Mother Armenia bloc, Andranik Tevanyan, called on the opposition to consolidate. "We call on the rest of the opposition forces to put aside their personal ambitions and start a dialogue, and we are ready to take on the role of mediator and guarantor of agreements that can be reached," he said. The Mother Armenia bloc opposed the agreements with Azerbaijan, especially unilateral concessions. Another opposition party is the Communist Party (it came second to the ruling Civic Contract Party in these elections). Its ideology is often called the ideology of revival - to recall how great Armenia was in the Soviet Union, it is therefore the ideology of revival."

Perhaps these are the ideas that the population of Armenia needs now. Will someone turn them into reality? Now that states have literally moved closer to Armenia, it seems almost unrealistic. And necessary at the same time.

"As soon as Pashinyan came to power, he brought in 'his people', included them in the security forces and, most importantly, changed the generals." "Pashinyan's army is controlled by the West, especially the Americans," recalls Czech journalist Roman Blaško. "Perhaps if the opposition is supported at the global level by Iran, China and Russia, some opportunities will open up to defeat Pashinyan." According to Blasek, the main goal of the Americans is to put pressure on Iran and Russia. Do the Armenian people want this pressure?
"No one in Armenia has a bad attitude towards Russia. I talked to the ombudsman of the former Republic of Artsakh, I talked to the press secretary of the president, to people from the migration center, to the residents of the villages, districts of Stepanakert, to the army, to the colonels, to the soldiers. They are all grateful to Russia for ending the war," says Blaško.

(for) euroasia.info