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Introduction
Hello, and welcome to the
Armenian News Network, Groong, Week
in Review. We are recording this show on November 28th, 2021.
Today we’ll be talking about the following major
topics:
●
Pashinyan Live on Facebook
●
Trilateral in Sochi, Bilateral in Brussels
●
Turkish-Armenian “Normalization”
●
Russian-Turkish “Co-opetition” in Eurasia
To talk about these issues, we have with us:
Hrant Mikaelian,
a political scientist and multidisciplinary researcher in social sciences based
in Yerevan. He is also a senior researcher at the Caucasus Institute.
And
Yeghia Tashjian, who is a
regional analyst and researcher based in Beirut, with expertise in China, Iran and the Persian Gulf. Tashjian
is Associate Fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for
Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and hosts a monthly radio program called “Turkey
Today”.
Topics This Week
Pashinyan Live on Facebook
Earlier this week on Tuesday, prior to his trip
to Sochi, Prime Minister Pashinyan gave a lengthy pre-recorded
interview. The questions for this interview were
pre-selected from the media a day earlier. The media for the rest of the week
was mainly dominated by reactions to this interview and the trilateral meeting
in Sochi that was scheduled for later in the week.
Impressions? Takeaways? What was noteworthy, what did we learn from it?
Trilateral in Sochi, Bilateral in Brussels
SOCHI
Two days ago on November 26, prime minister
Pashinyan, and presidents Putin & Aliyev met in Sochi. This seems to have
been the meeting the three countries were preparing for and had originally planned
for Nov. 9, but then suddenly Pashinyan remembered that was the anniversary of
his crushing defeat a year ago and postponed it.
The absolutely idiotic idea to plan the meeting
for Nov 9/10, then postponing it cost a dozen soldiers on both sides their
lives, and 23 Armenian POWs being taken by Azerbaijan in the November 15-16
mini-war, and we’re not even talking about the Shushi incident and 3 Armenians
killed; the additional Azeri checkpoints on the Goris-Kapan and Kapan-Chakaten highways. BTW, since May 12, 2021 Azerbaijan now
controls nearly 100 sq. km inside “Armenia proper”
(according to Nagorno
Karabakh Observer).
So they held the meeting, and
we’ve read a lot of statements. What was the outcome?
The meeting focused
on border demarcations and transportation, aka corridor politics. Another trilateral
statement was signed. Was there anything substantive in that
statement?
What about the timing of the meeting, ahead of
the one in Brussels? Is Russia basically carving out and staking a claim on the
issue of demarcation & delimitation but deferring the resolution of other
issues to other formats?
Possible follow-up and discussion:
●
Mutual recognition?
○
On an earlier episode of our podcast, Arthur
Martirosyan mentioned that demarcation and delimitation might presuppose the
establishment of diplomatic relations (or even a peace agreement)? Should we
expect something of this nature also agreed upon before the start of D&D?
●
Deadlines?
○
It seems that the parties are interested in
beginning the process, but would it be correct to say that the actual process
will be lengthy and measured in decades (similar to other demarcation &
delimitation processes)?
●
Artsakh Status
○
Nothing was uttered about the status of Nagorno
Karabakh (Artsakh), not even by Pashinyan.
○
Many fear that by agreeing to recognize
Azerbaijan’s borders, the fate of Artsakh’s status inside Azerbaijan will be
sealed. Is this what we’re headed for or can Pashinyan avoid such a scenario?
Does he want to?
●
There was nothing in the document about our
prisoners.
○
The Geneva convention prohibits the use of
prisoners in bargaining, yet many are claiming that this is exactly what
Armenia is acquiescing to. Why?
○
Do you think they’re planning to talk about it
in Brussels (mentioned by Andranik Kocharyan)? If so,
why?
●
Shahumyan
●
The Lachin corridor
●
The Lavrov plan in mid-stream of realization
●
Pashinyan’s
“ground zero” for negotiations
BRUSSELS
There was much noise in the last two weeks in
the wake of Pashinyan postponing the Sochi meeting, that Moscow’s mediation had
failed, and when a proposal by the EU for the prime minister and president Aliyev
to meet in Brussels was accepted, there was an impression that the West was
upstaging Russia.
However, Pashinyan and Aliyev were already going
to be basically in the same room, at the EU Eastern Partnership summit on
December 15 in Brussels. The EU invitation for a bilateral meeting on the
sideline seems somewhat opportunistic, especially considering that there have
been hardly any preparations for it.
Pashinyan mentioned in his Facebook live address
that the meeting in Brussels will be focused on humanitarian and POW issues.
Are the two meetings complimentary, or
competitive in agenda? Why couldn’t the humanitarian issues also be on the
table in Sochi, for example?
Could Brussels be an attempt to secure the West
a small share in the post-war conflict resolution process?
Follow-ups:
●
What outcomes can we expect from Brussels?
●
What leverage does The West, - the US and the
EU, - have to mediate with results? And what is even the scope of their
involvement?
●
One of the core principles
of the Eastern Partnership process in the EU is the non-use of force. Will
Armenia find the strength to bring up Azerbaijan’s use of force at the summit?
Turkish-Armenian “Normalization”
As we know, in the past couple of months Armenia
has been sending signals to Turkey
that it wants to “normalize” relations with it unconditionally. At every step,
Turkey has put more conditions for Armenia to satisfy before Turkey will talk
about “normalization”. So this past week Armenia
officially requested Russia’s help
to mediate in “normalization” talks. Russia has been stating for some time that
they’re ready to facilitate such talks.
Hrant:
First of all, do you have any idea what Armenia means by “normalization” of
ties with Turkey? What does “normalization” mean to Turkey?
Yeghia:
You’re a diaspora Armenian, so I’m very interested to hear, and compare and
contrast your impressions to the same question: What does “normalization” mean
to Armenia? To Turkey? And of course, to the Armenian Diaspora?
What does Russia bring to the table?
How can Russia help mediate, or “normalize” ties between Armenia and Turkey?
Russian-Turkish “Co-opetition” in Eurasia
OK, Yeghia, we’re
going to turn to your article
published in The Armenian Weekly this past week, analyzing the Russian-Turkish
relations across a wide arc from North Africa to the Middle East and to the
South Caucasus. These various relationships can be considered conflicts,
co-operations, collaborations, competitions, and in fact you use a new term
called “Co-opetition” to describe them.
Where does this term come from, and why does it
describe the wide range of relationships between Russia and Turkey across the
map?
What drives the evolution of these relations
from flat out conflict and war, to more of a competition and then sometimes to
a collaboration? What are the external forces that these co-opetitions
are trying to manage or keep at bay? (Taking examples of the cases in Libya,
Syria, Artsakh and Ukraine)
Turning our attention to this co-opetition evolving in the South Caucasus, we’ve seen it go from the 44-day war in Artsakh, to a lot of post-war elbow-shuffling to gain a “peacekeeping” role in and around Artsakh, and finally now to the so-called “3+3 regional security platform” where Russia and Turkey appear to be in general agreement. How can Armenia, or any small country, navigate through stormy co-opetitions between regional rivals?
Wrap-up
That was our Week in Review
show, and we hope it helped you catch up with some of the issues in and around
Armenia from this past week. As always, we invite your feedback and your
suggestions. You can find us on most social media and podcast platforms, or our
website Groong.org.
Thanks to Laura Osborn for
the music on our podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel on Youtube, Like our pages and follow us on social media. On behalf of
everyone in this episode, we wish you a good week, thanks for listening and
we’ll talk to you next week.
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Keywords
Hrant Mikaelian, Yeghia Tashjian, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh, Artsakh,
Georgia, South Caucasus, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Adjaria,
Batumi, Syunik, Turkish-Armenian Normalization, Reconciliation, Genocide
Recognition, Co-opetition, Communication channels, Corridors, Borders, Peace
Negotiations, EU, European Union, Erdogan, Vladimir Putin,