Russian pressures or fears from Azerbaijan? - politician on Armenia’s decision to skip NATO military drills
Armenia’s last-moment decision not to attend the NATO Agile Spirit 2017 drills may be linked to either Russian pressures or Azerbaijan’s plans to send its troops to Georgia (which is hosting the event), a political analyst said Monday, highlighting the likelihood of the latter scenario.
Speaking to Tert.am, Styopa Safaryan, Director of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA), noted that the earlier trainings in which Armenia had participation, were not attended by Azerbaijani troops.
He cited the sad precedent of Gurgen Margaryan, the Armenian officer who was brutally axed to death by an Azerbaijani counterpart in Budapest, Hungary where both servicemen were attending a NATO training event in 2004. “And even though NATO condemned the incident, I don’t think that the subsequent developments – including Ramil Safarov’s [the Azerbaijani officer’s] extradition to Baku – were a comfort to Armenia. So Azerbaijan’s participation is the most likely reason behind our decision not to take part in the event,” he said, not ruling out the possibility of fears against further Azerbaijani provocations.
Safaryan noted that Russian expert circles reacted very aggressively to Armenia’s participation in past NATO events.
“Perhaps Yerevan chose to be cautious this time or Moscow dropped hints that our participation is not desirable for them. This is absolutely possible, especially after [US President Donald] Trump’s August 2 move to enforce sanctions against Russia,” he said.
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